Targeting angiogenesis of radionuclide imaging molecular probes for tumor individualized medicine

Angiogenesis is essential for tumor growth, and anti-angiogenesis therapy has gained increasing attention in clinical oncology. Nonetheless, the mechanisms underlying anti-angiogenic therapeutics and cancer cell resistance to these drugs remain unclear. Non-invasive nuclide molecular imaging can be used to determine the mechanism of basic drugs and drug-resistant pathways. This tool can also be utilized to personalize anti-angiogenic therapy by enabling target expression quantification prior to and during treatment. This review focuses on the development of radio-labeled probes for imaging the following key proteins expressed during angiogenesis:vascular endothelial growth factor and its receptor integrin αvβ3, the extracellular domain of fibronectin, and matrix metalloproteases. This review also discusses the potential of these probes for individualized anti-angiogenesis therapy.