Title of article :
Molecular imaging in tracking cancer stem cells: A review
Author/Authors :
Ghaffari, Hamed Department of Medical Physics - School of Medicine - Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran , Atashzar, Mohammad Reza Department of Immunology - School of Medicine - Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran , Abdollahi, Hamid Department of Radiologic Sciences and Medical Physics - School of Allied Medicine - Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
Abstract :
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have critical roles in tumor development, progression, and recurrence. They are responsible for current
cancer treatment failure and remain questionable for the design and development of new therapeutic strategies. With this issue,
medical imaging provides several clues for finding biological mechanisms and strategies to treat CSCs. This review aims to summarize
current molecular imaging approaches for detecting CSCs. In addition, some promising issues for CSCs finding and explaining
biological mechanisms have been addressed. Among the molecular imaging approaches, modalities including Magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) have the greatest roles and several new approaches such as optical imaging
are in progress.
Keywords :
Cancer stem cells , Molecular imaging , MRI , PET , Optical imaging
Journal title :
Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran
