Imaging the hallmarks of cancer.
Authors
Affiliations (20)
Affiliations (20)
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA. [email protected].
- Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany. [email protected].
- Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS, Bremen, Germany. [email protected].
- University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
- Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Swiss Cancer Center Leman (SCCL), Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Agora Translational Cancer Research Center, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Lausanne Branch, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
- Department of Precision Medicine, GROW - Research Institute for Oncology and Reproduction, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
- Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
- Institute for Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
- Carle Illinois College of Medicine, Urbana, IL, USA.
- Medical BioSciences, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
- TUM University Hospital and Bavarian Cancer Research Center (BZKF), Munich, Germany.
- Werner Siemens Imaging Center, Department of Preclinical Imaging and Radiopharmacy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
- Cluster of Excellence iFIT (EXC 2180) "Image-Guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies", University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
- Werner Siemens Imaging Center, Department of Preclinical Imaging and Radiopharmacy, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. [email protected].
- Cluster of Excellence iFIT (EXC 2180) "Image-Guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies", University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. [email protected].
- DKFZ Heidelberg DKTK Partner Site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. [email protected].
Abstract
The hallmarks of cancer were introduced by Hanahan and Weinberg as a conceptual organizing framework to distil the complexity of tumours. This concept of cancer hallmarks has become an enduring theme in cancer research. Moreover, an increasing number of therapeutic strategies are being aimed at targeting these hallmarks. However, translating them into the clinic requires technologies to monitor their effectiveness and biomarkers that can stratify patients for the choice of specific therapies. Tumour heterogeneity and the ability of tumour cells to rapidly mutate and develop evasion strategies makes the development of non-invasive imaging capabilities to interrogate these hallmarks as biomarkers and monitor them longitudinally and quantitatively particularly important. This Review presents a holistic discussion of non-invasive diagnostic imaging capabilities related to the hallmarks of cancer; some hallmarks can be assessed with imaging probes that directly target biomolecules, whereas others can be interrogated indirectly by imaging pathophysiological processes. Additionally, visualizing the hallmarks of cancer can be addressed with artificial intelligence-assisted, multiparametric image analysis (for example, radiomics, radiogenomics and deep learning). The approaches discussed have been evaluated in a translational context, and some of them already have a substantial role in clinical practice, for example, to guide treatment strategies, including surgical resections, radiotherapy and molecularly targeted chemo-, immuno- and radiopharmaceutical therapies.