BackgroundComprehensive preoperative oncologic staging information is obtained in order to define guideline-based treatments for patients with head and neck cancer. However, preoperative oncologic information cannot be transferred to the intraoperative setting without loss of information. Despite the constant development of modern medicine, only visual and tactile clinical information is decisive for intraoperative detection and demarcation of malignant tissue.Aim of the workThis work aimed to develop intraoperative specific visualization of invasive carcinoma cells in real time.Materials and methodsIn tissue and cell culture experiments, the expression and regulation of abiomarker for invasive carcinoma cells was characterized by immuno-(fluorescence)histology, immunocytology, fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and Western blot. Functional analyzes were performed by invasion and migration assays. For in vivo studies, ahead and neck squamous cell carcinoma mouse-based patient-derived xenotransplant (HNSCC PDX) model was established to simulate visualization of invasive carcinomas using functionalized RGD peptides.ResultsThe RGD-binding integrinv6 has been identified as astable biomarker of invasive carcinoma cells. Functionalized RGD peptides showed selective binding to integrinv6 for detection of v6-positive invasive carcinoma cells. In the HNSCC PDX mouse model, molecular imaging of invasive carcinoma tissue (bioimaging) could be established.ConclusionMolecular bioimaging enables advanced visualization of the localization and expansion of invasive carcinoma tissue in real time. This intraoperative gain of information could support curative surgical approaches.     «

BackgroundComprehensive preoperative oncologic staging information is obtained in order to define guideline-based treatments for patients with head and neck cancer. However, preoperative oncologic information cannot be transferred to the intraoperative setting without loss of information. Despite the constant development of modern medicine, only visual and tactile clinical information is decisive for intraoperative detection and demarcation of malignant tissue.Aim of the workThis work aimed to d...     »