Science to practice: can decreased lymph node MR imaging signal intensity be used as a biomarker for the efficacy of cancer vaccination?

Summary In the study of Zhang et al (1), tumor-bearing mice were vaccinated with magnetically labeled, tumor antigen-primed dendritic cells (DCs). After homing of these antigen-presenting cells to the draining lymph node (LN), it was shown that the iron oxide-induced decrease in LN magnetic resonance (MR) imaging signal intensity correlated with the observed tumor growth delay, suggesting that the degree of hypointensity can serve as a surrogate marker for the efficacy of tumor vaccination.