Imaging techniques: new avenues in cancer gene and cell therapy

Abstract

Cancer is one of the world's most concerning health problems and poses many challenges in the range of approaches associated with the treatment of cancer. Current understanding of this disease brings to the fore a number of novel therapies that can be useful in the treatment of cancer. Among them, gene and cell therapies have emerged as novel and effective approaches. One of the most important challenges for cancer gene and cell therapies is correct monitoring of the modified genes and cells. In fact, visual tracking of therapeutic cells, immune cells, stem cells and genetic vectors that contain therapeutic genes and the various drugs is important in cancer therapy. Similarly, molecular imaging, such as nanosystems, fluorescence, bioluminescence, positron emission tomography, single photon-emission computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, have also been found to be powerful tools in monitoring cancer patients who have received therapeutic cell and gene therapies or drug therapies. In this review, we focus on these therapies and their molecular imaging techniques in treating and monitoring the progress of the therapies on various types of cancer.

Breast cancer diagnosis: Imaging techniques and biochemical markers

“…The utilization of imaging techniques is one of main approaches for detection and assessment response to therapy in patients with breast cancer (Khalkhali, Mena, & Diggles, ). Multiple lines of evidence indicated that various imaging techniques such as mammography, MRI, PET, CT, and SPECT could be employed as effective tools for assessment patients with various cancer such as breast cancer, giloma, oral cancer, and melanoma (Keshavarzi, Darijani, et al, ; Keshavarzi, Sorayayi, et al, ; Khanmohammadi, Mir, Baniebrahimi, & Mirzaei, ; Saadatpour et al, ; Saadatpour, Bjorklund, et al, ). Growing evidences revealed that imaging techniques are associated with some limitations such as expensive (Andreea et al, ).…”

Exosomes and cancer: From oncogenic roles to therapeutic applications

“…Cancer is one of the important diseases that are associated with various public health problems in the world . Hence, fast and suitable diagnosis platforms are needed . Several studies reported that a variety of approaches such as cell therapy, immunotherapy, gene therapy, and nanotechnology‐based methods could be applied in the treatment of cancer.…”

Therapeutic application of multipotent stem cells

“…Numerous studies have focused on the identification and finding new therapies for cancer treatment (Mirzaei, Naseri, et al, ; Mirzaei, Yazdi, et al, ; Saadatpour, Bjorklund, et al, ). It has been shown that present therapies could not provide satisfactory effects for patients with cancer (Mirzaei, Sahebkar, Jaafari, et al, ; Saadatpour, Fadaee, et al, ; Saadatpour, Rezaei, et al, ; Salarinia et al, ). Hence, new therapies to overcome the limitations of conventional therapies are necessary (Mirzaei, Sahebkar, et al, ).…”