Abstract
The translation of results from the preclinical to the clinical setting is often anything other than straightforward. Indeed, ideas and even very intriguing results obtained at all levels of preclinical research, i.e., in vitro, on animal models, or even in clinical trials, often require much effort to validate, and sometimes, even useful data are lost or are demonstrated to be inapplicable in the clinic. In vivo, small-animal, preclinical imaging uses almost the same technologies in terms of hardware and software settings as for human patients, and hence, might result in a more rapid translation. In this perspective, magnetic resonance imaging might be the most translatable technique, since only in rare cases does it require the use of contrast agents, and when not, sequences developed in the lab can be readily applied to patients, thanks to their non-invasiveness. The wide range of sequences can give much useful information on the anatomy and pathophysiology of oncologic lesions in different body districts. This review aims to underline the versatility of this imaging technique and its various approaches, reporting the latest preclinical studies on thyroid, breast, and prostate cancers, both on small laboratory animals and on human patients, according to our previous and ongoing research lines.
Highlights
Translational medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of biomedicine, which aims to translate results from preclinical research to the clinical setting, the so-called “from bench to bedside” path [1]
These results showed that diffusion-weighted sequences (DWI) provides useful and promising results on the nature of a thyroid nodule, and it may have a role in the selection of nodules that should undergo needle aspiration cytology [143]
The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach described may improve the accuracy of evaluating the tumor response to neoadjuvant therapy (NAT), showing a higher predictive power than models based on tumor size changes, and it may be used as an early marker of outcome in breast cancer patients [122]
Summary
Translational medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of biomedicine, which aims to translate results from preclinical (in vitro and in vivo) research to the clinical setting, the so-called “from bench to bedside” path [1]. Most imaging techniques for small animals are already the same used in clinical settings, i.e., computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), high-frequency ultrasonography (HFUS) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and are readily translatable In oncological research, these imaging modalities are useful in studying drug biodistribution, monitoring treatment response, and identifying new molecular targets and biomarkers for early tumor detection [3,11,12,13,14,15]. Dedicated scanners are designed to meet these needs in terms of higher spatial and temporal resolutions but still adopt the same physical and technological principles of their clinical counterparts, which lead to more direct and faster translatability of findings [15] In this perspective, the MRI can be considered the least invasive and most comprehensive technique, from an anatomo-functional point of view, in the clinical setting. To underline the versatility of the MRI techniques, some preclinical studies on human patients have been reported, as well
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