Over the last several decades, much effort has been dedicated to the treatment of cancer and one of the most promising approaches is targeted delivery of therapeutic agents. MRI, radionuclide-based imaging techniques, and reporter gene-based approaches will each have their own niches towards the same ultimate goal: personalized medicine for cancer patients. Each imaging modality has its advantages and disadvantages and they are more complementary than competitive. Safety is a major concern for future clinical applications and the ideal imaging modality for tracking therapeutic cells in cancer patients requires the imaging tags to be non-toxic, biocompatible, and highly specific. Non-invasive tracking of immune and stem cells were primarily intended for (potential) cancer therapy applications while tracking of cancer cells could further our understanding of cancer development and tumor metastasis. immune cells, stem cells, and cancer cells) in cancer are described, which include fluorescence, bioluminescence, positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The techniques for tracking various cell types (e.g. In general, there are two approaches for cell tracking: direct (cells are labeled with certain tags that can be detected directly with suitable imaging equipment) and indirect cell labeling (which typically uses a reporter gene approach).

This brief review will summarize the various methods for non-invasive cell tracking in cancer and cancer therapy. T cells and stem cells) to the tumor site, and/or subsequent differentiation/proliferation of these cells, would allow better understanding of the mechanisms of cancer development and intervention. The ability to non-invasively track the delivery of various therapeutic cells (e.g. Cell-based therapy holds great promise for cancer treatment.

No suitable cells in tracking area