Department of Medical Imaging, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, PR China.
Departments of Oncology & Pathology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors & Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Wuhan 430071, PR China.
Biomaterials. 2014 Apr;35(13):4125-32. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2014.01.059. Epub 2014 Feb 12.
In tumor tissues, cancer cells, tumor infiltrating macrophages and tumor neo-vessels in close spatial vicinity with one another form tumor invasion unit, which is a biologically important tumor microenvironment of metastasis to facilitate cancer invasion and metastasis. Establishing an in situ molecular imaging technology to simultaneously reveal these three components is essential for the in-depth investigation of tumor invasion unit. In this report, we have developed a computer-aided algorithm by quantum dots (QDs)-based multiplexed molecular imaging technique for such purpose. A series of studies on gastric cancer tumor tissues demonstrated that the tumor invasion unit was correlated with major unfavorable pathological features and worse clinical outcomes, which illustrated the significantly negative impacts and predictive power of tumor invasion unit on patient overall survival. This study confirmed the technical advantages of QDs-based in situ and simultaneous molecular imaging of key cancer molecules to gain deeper insights into the biology of cancer invasion.
在肿瘤组织中,癌细胞、肿瘤浸润巨噬细胞和肿瘤新生血管彼此紧密相邻,形成肿瘤侵袭单元,这是转移过程中具有生物学重要意义的肿瘤微环境,有助于癌症的侵袭和转移。建立一种能够同时揭示这三个组成部分的原位分子成像技术对于深入研究肿瘤侵袭单元至关重要。在本报告中,我们开发了一种基于量子点(QDs)的多标记分子成像技术的计算机辅助算法来实现这一目标。一系列胃癌肿瘤组织的研究表明,肿瘤侵袭单元与主要的不良病理特征和更差的临床结局相关,这表明肿瘤侵袭单元对患者总生存的负面影响和预测能力显著。这项研究证实了基于 QDs 的原位和同时分子成像关键癌症分子的技术优势,有助于深入了解癌症侵袭的生物学。