Beyond the brain: exploring the impact of animal models of leptomeningeal disease from solid tumors

Table 2 Important features of model types

	Visually resembles human LMD	Cancer cells genetically similar to human disease	Reveals changes to leptomeningeal space	Involves brain parenchymal and systemic metastasis	Involves treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, etc.)	Can model many cancer types	Spontaneous generation of primary tumor and leptomeningeal metastasis
Intra-CSF injection of tumor cells	Yes	Variable				Yes
Intracarotid injection of tumor cells	Yes	?	?	Yes		Yes
Brain parenchymal injection of tumor cells	Yes	Variable	?
Subcutaneous/mammary fat pad injection of tumor cells	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes
LeptoM/LM-phenotype	Yes	?	?			Yes
Genetic manipulation	Yes	?	?				Yes

Question marks denote areas of future research which could be explored by the model

ISSN: 2051-5960