title: Molecular imaging of cell-mediated cancer immunotherapy.
abstract: New strategies based on the activation of a patient's immune response are being sought to complement present conventional exogenous cancer therapies. Elucidating the trafficking pathways of immune cells in vivo, together with their migratory properties in relation to their differentiation and activation status, is useful for understanding how the immune system interacts with cancer. Methods based on tissue sampling to monitor immune responses are inadequate for repeatedly characterizing the responses of the immune system in different organs. A solution to this problem might come from molecular and cellular imaging - a branch of biomedical sciences that combines biotechnology and imaging methods to characterize, in vivo, the molecular and cellular processes involved in normal and pathologic states. The general concepts of noninvasive imaging of targeted cells as well as the technology and probes applied to cell-mediated cancer immunotherapy imaging are outlined in this review.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Radiological Sciences, University of Milan, Via Di Rudini 8, 20142 Milan, Italy. giovanni.lucignani@unimi.it
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lucignani
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ottobrini
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martelli
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rescigno
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Clerici
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008163:Luminescent Measurements / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D013194:Staining and Labeling / Q000379:methods