In Vivo Imaging in Cancer (original) (raw)

  1. Ralph Weissleder2,3
  2. 1Anatomy and Structural Biology, Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center, Program in Microenvironment and Metastasis, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, New York 10461
  3. 2Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114
  4. 3Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114
  5. Correspondence: condeeli{at}aecom.yu.edu

Abstract

Imaging has become an indispensable tool in the study of cancer biology and in clinical prognosis and treatment. The rapid advances in high resolution fluorescent imaging at single cell level and MR/PET/CT image registration, combined with new molecular probes of cell types and metabolic states, will allow the physical scales imaged by each to be bridged. This holds the promise of translation of basic science insights at the single cell level to clinical application. In this article, we describe the recent advances in imaging at the macro- and micro-scale and how these advances are synergistic with new imaging agents, reporters, and labeling schemes. Examples of new insights derived from the different scales of imaging and relevant probes are discussed in the context of cancer progression and metastasis.

Footnotes