Summary

Radioimaging Matrix-Remodelling Enzymes in the Microenvironment of Tumours and their Metastases (eRadioImage)

The cellular and molecular composition of the inflammatory microenvironment of tumours is decisive for the invasive and metastatic properties of carcinomas as well as for the pro- or anti-tumour polarization of the immune system. To this end, non-invasive imaging technologies hold great promise for monitoring the microenvironment for diagnosis and subsequent therapy. Nuclear medicine technologies, namely PET (positron emission tomography) imaging, are widely clinically applied and versatile for detecting tumour-biological parameters in vivo. However, there is still a lack of imaging probes that faithfully detect targets characteristic for the tumour-promoting or tumour suppressing states of the microenvironment in the primary tumour and at metastatic sites.

To address this urgent need, this project aims to establish a pipeline for advancing novel microenvironment imaging probes for personalized characterization of the activation state of the stroma in tumours and (pre)metastatic niches