Techniques to assess the oxygenation of human tumors. State of the art.

There is now good evidence that the oxygenation status of certain types of human tumors plays an important role in determining the response of those tumors to therapy. More recent evidence suggests that oxygenation status can also influence local tumor aggressiveness and metastatic spread. As a consequence significant effort is being made to find relevant methods for assessing tumor oxygenation status and thereby allowing for the selection of patients that should be given additional/alternative therapies to improve response. In this paper we will review the importance of tumor oxygenation status and discuss the potential clinical methods for monitoring that are currently available.