Imaging cell death.

There is currently a need for imaging methods capable of detecting cell death in tissues and the early onset of tumor cell death resulting from therapy. However, to date, no probe has been approved for routine imaging of cell death in the clinic. The challenge is to identify hallmarks of cell death, which have clinical relevance, and then to develop and validate imaging biomarkers for these hallmarks. We focus here on cell death imaging probes, which either have been trialed in the clinic or have significant promise, based on preclinical studies.