Imaging Immune Response to Cancer and Treatment 1

Tumors are often surrounded and invaded by bone marrow-derived cells. Imaging the infiltration of such immune cells into tumors may therefore be an attractive means of detecting tumors or of tracking the response to anticancer therapy. We show that it is possible to detect these cells noninvasively by positron emission tomography (PET) via the surface markers displayed by them. What we are seeing in the mouse is its lymph nodes (small circles) and the tumor (on the left-back shoulder).