Nuclear imaging of cancer cell therapies.

A promising role of cellular therapies in cancer treatment is reflected by the constantly growing number of clinical trials with adoptively transferred cells. Direct and indirect cell labeling for the nuclear imaging of transferred cells has been proven reliable for imaging adoptive cellular therapies. Both methods show their advantages and limitations. Direct labeling is a relatively easy, inexpensive, and well-established methodology. Indirect labeling using a reporter gene imaging paradigm allows for reliable, stable, and harmless visualization of cellular trafficking, persistence, proliferation, and function at the target site. It is expected that new human-derived reporter genes will be rapidly translated into clinical applications that require repetitive imaging for the effective monitoring of various genetic and cellular therapies.