Assessment of tumor response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

This review briefly summarizes recent developments in the use of non-invasive imaging to assess tumor response to TKI therapy. Receptor tyrosine kinases play important roles in cancer development. A new class of drugs, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) can induce rapid and dramatic tumor suppression when administered to carefully selected patient groups. Identifying these patients with responding tumors prior to or shortly after the initiation of therapy remains challenging. The gold standard of response assessment has been by invasive biopsies used in biological and biochemical procedures. Advances in non-invasive imaging at the anatomical, functional and molecular level have enabled the early detection of tumor response; sometimes within days of beginning treatment. The growing area of molecular imaging has spurred the discovery of novel targeting peptides to bind TKI responding tumors. The emergence of targeted, quick responding imaging probes advances the field of cancer management towards the goal of personalized medicine.