BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - Cerenkov Luminescence Imaging (CLI) is a new imaging modality that utilizes the intrinsic Cerenkov Radiation from radionuclides and captures these signals on optical imaging devices.
In recent years, thanks to contributions from many molecular imaging groups around the world, CLI has found a number of both potential applications including, but not limited to, in vivo tumor imaging, reporter gene imaging, tomographic imaging, multimodality probe development, intraoperative imaging, etc. Our article, “Proof-of-Concept Study of Monitoring Cancer Drug Therapy with Cerenkov Luminescence Imaging,” focuses on one of the more interesting areas of applications of CLI, cancer therapy monitoring, and shows that CLI has sufficient sensitivity and quantification capability to be a viable alternative to the existing nuclear imaging modalities at least in preclinical cancer drug screening and possibly clinical therapy monitoring.
Compared with nuclear imaging modalities, CLI enjoys a number of favorable characteristics including low instrumentation cost, high imaging sensitivity, short acquisition time, high throughput, and ease of learning. In preclinical drug screening, for instance, the improvement in overall efficiency and cost saving of the screening process brought by the many advantages of CLI can be significant. CLI also compares favorably with bioluminescence imaging as well as the former allows for concurrent PET imaging as well as eliminates the need for reporter delivery.
| "...CLI is a novel molecular imaging modality that possesses much potential in both preclinical and clinical applications." |
One intriguing aspect of CLI’s potentials lies within intraoperative applications including endoscopy, laparoscopy, and cystoscopy, which is pertinent to the field of urology. Traditional intraoperative imaging utilizes gamma probes to detect 99mTc tracers, which requires a significant amount of radioactivity and has been plagued by a lack of quantification capability. On the contrary, CLI excels in the areas where the gamma probe technology lacks and therefore has a greater potential in intraoperative imaging. CLI can be easily envisioned to provide intraoperative guidance by way of visualizing tumors and metastases with high sensitivity, delineating tumor margins by great imaging contrast and resolution, and monitoring chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy effect with excellent quantification capability, all the while effectively limiting radiation exposure to both patients and surgeons with a low requirement of radiation dosage.
In summary, CLI is a novel molecular imaging modality that possesses much potential in both preclinical and clinical applications. In the field of urology, CLI can be envisioned to contribute in preclinical drug screening, clinical cancer therapy monitoring, and intraoperative guidance. With more and more interest from both basic researchers and clinicians, it is truly exciting to see how this rapidly developing technique can integrate into urology in the near future.
Written by:
Yingding Xu and Zhen Cheng as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com. This initiative offers a method of publishing for the professional urology community. Authors are given an opportunity to expand on the circumstances, limitations etc... of their research by referencing the published abstract.
Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS)
Department of Radiology and Bio-X Program
Stanford Universitybr />Stanford, CA USA 94305-5344
Proof-of-concept study of monitoring cancer drug therapy with cerenkov luminescence imaging - Abstract
