New Imaging System Tracks Cancer From the Whole Body Down to Single Cells

A medical scan can show where cancer is growing in the body, but not what individual cells inside a tumor are doing; microscopy can reveal that cellular detail, but not how the disease is behaving across the whole body. Researchers in Scotland have now connected the two views in a single imaging system, combining PET scans, bioluminescence and fluorescence to locate tumors throughout the body, identify the most significant lesions, and then examine those same tumors down to individual cells and the tissue around them.

"This exciting technology allows us to build a clearer map of how cancer behaves at both a holistic and microscopic level," said study lead Professor David Lewis of the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute and the University of Glasgow. "It allows researchers to follow tumors in the body, identify the lesions that matter, and then zoom in to study those cancer cells and their environment, giving us new information about cancer which we can take forward into better and more precise treatments." The research is published in Nature Biotechnology.

The Cancer Research UK-funded method labels cancer cells so they remain identifiable across the different imaging techniques, letting scientists track where the cells travel, how they grow, and how they interact with nearby immune cells and blood vessels, factors that can influence both cancer progression and treatment response. Researchers demonstrated the approach in liver and lung cancer models in mice, where it is helping investigate why some tumors respond to therapy while others resist it.

The system remains preclinical, tested so far only in mice and not available for use in human patients. More than 403,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in the UK each year, including 34,800 in Scotland, and around 170,000 people nationwide die from the disease annually. The researchers say the approach could eventually support work across oncology, immunology, neuroscience and regenerative medicine.