The negative impact of tumor hypoxia on radiotherapeutic efficacy is well recognized. However, an easy to use, reliable imaging method for assessment of tumor oxygenation in routine clinical practice remains elusive. Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a relatively new imaging technique that utilizes a combination of light and ultrasound (US) to enable functional imaging of tumor hemodynamic characteristics in vivo. Several clinical trials are currently evaluating the utility of PAI in cancer detection for breast, thyroid, and prostate cancer. Here, we evaluated the potential of PAI for rapid, label-free, non-invasive quantification of tumor oxygenation as a biomarker of radiation response in head and neck cancer.

中文翻译：

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光声成像作为头颈癌放射治疗功效的早期生物标志物

肿瘤缺氧对放射治疗功效的负面影响已广为人知。然而，在常规临床实践中，一种易于使用，可靠的影像学方法来评估肿瘤的氧合作用仍然遥遥无期。光声成像（PAI）是一种相对较新的成像技术，该技术利用光和超声（US）的组合在体内对肿瘤血液动力学特征进行功能成像。目前，一些临床试验正在评估PAI在乳腺癌，甲状腺癌和前列腺癌的癌症检测中的效用。在这里，我们评估了PAI用于快速，无标签，无创性量化肿瘤氧合作为头颈癌放射反应的生物标志物的潜力。