Magnetic resonance imaging in cancer research

Non-invasive assessment of antineoplastic response and correlation of the location, magnitude and duration of transgene expression in vivo would be particularly useful for evaluating cancer gene therapy protocols. This review presents selected examples of how magnetic resonance (MR) has been used to assess therapeutic efficacy by non-invasive quantitation of cell kill, to detect a therapeutic response prior to a change in tumour volume and to detect spatial heterogeneity of the tumour response and quantitate transgene expression. In addition, applications of the use of bioluminescence imaging (BLI) for the evaluation of treatment efficacy and in vivo transgene expression are also presented. These examples provide an overview of areas in which imaging of animal tumour models can contribute towards improving the evaluation of experimental therapeutic agents.