The visualization of whole organs and organisms through tissue clearing and fluorescence volumetric imaging has revolutionized the way we look at biological samples. Its application to solid tumours is changing our perception of tumour architecture, revealing signalling networks and cell interactions critical in tumour progression, and provides a powerful new strategy for cancer diagnostics. This Review introduces the latest advances in tissue clearing and three-dimensional imaging, examines the challenges in clearing epithelia — the tissue of origin of most malignancies — and discusses the insights that tissue clearing has brought to cancer research, as well as the prospective applications to experimental and clinical oncology.

通过组织清除和荧光体积成像对整个器官和生物体进行可视化，彻底改变了我们看待生物样本的方式。它在实体瘤中的应用正在改变我们对肿瘤结构的看法，揭示对肿瘤进展至关重要的信号网络和细胞相互作用，并为癌症诊断提供了一种强大的新策略。这篇综述介绍了组织清除和三维成像的最新进展，探讨了清除上皮（大多数恶性肿瘤的起源组织）的挑战，并讨论了组织清除为癌症研究带来的见解，以及对癌症研究的前瞻性应用。实验和临床肿瘤学。