Lymphoma
Lymphomas are subdivided into Morbus Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin-lymphoma (NHL). The distinction between the two is based on the occurrence of multinucleated Sternberg-Reed cells. When these are detected in microscopical examinations, the malignancy is classified as Morbus Hodgkin lymphoma. Various factors can lead to the formation of NHL, including chromosomal translocations and viral infections. NHL can be further subdivided according to the affected cell type into B- and T-cell lymphomas. Although there is a good chance of cure for NHL patients treated with stringent chemotherapeutic regimens, there are a small percentage of cases that are resistant to therapy. These patients cannot be identified by studies of isolated tumor cells, and it is assumed that there are specific tumor-stroma interactions that render lymphoma cells resistant to chemotherapy. There are mouse models to study the interactions of lymphomas with their microenvironment, but it appears unlikely that mouse models can be performed in sufficiently high quantities that allow global systems-biological analyses of tumor-stroma interactions with and without divers chemotherapeutic regimens. We have recently shown that BL cell lines can successfully be inoculated on the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). Several CAM experiments described in detail the tumor microenvironment and the metastatic dissemination of various tumor entities including melanoma, glioma, fibrosarcoma and colon carcinoma. The CAM provides the presence of all relevant stroma factors, e.g. immune cells, extracellular matrix components, blood and lymphatic vessels. This underlines the upcoming role of the CAM model in cancer research, especially in the field of tumor-stroma interactions and the analysis of the metastatic cascade.