Current methods of molecular imaging
Mikael Pittet
Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
The tumour microenvironment recruits a variety of host cells that display contrasting functions. Whereas some immune cells show strong tumouricidal activity and can reject tumours, others subvert anti-tumour activities and even facilitate tumour invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis. Thus, the success of cancer immunotherapy’s depends partly on our detailed understanding of the cellular and molecular events that control tumour immunity. Here I will discuss non-invasive molecular imaging tools that permit to track immune players directly in tissues, and that have started to yield new insights into the dynamics of immune functions. The in vivo discovery effort utilizes various three-dimensional bioimaging technologies combined with novel cell trackers and molecular sensors. The imaging modalities provide either real-time microscopic cellular resolution, quantitative whole-organ information and/or have translational potential. It is hoped that molecular imaging will complement non-imaging approaches to elucidate some of the cellular and molecular processes that influence tumour genesis in vivo, and to develop improved therapeutic approaches.
