Great progress has been made in in vivo imaging for cancer metastasis. Eisenblaetter et al. developed an innovative S100A8/A9-specific single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) probe for imaging and succeeded in detecting the metastatic organ favored by the cancer before the cancer arrival. By utilizing this advanced method, researchers have also found that cancer-derived monocytes are the main source of the abundant production of S100A8/A9 in the pre-metastatic area. The CCL2-CCR2 axis is associated with S100A8/A9 production. Clinical establishment of this technique is expected to enable accurate prediction and monitoring of cancer metastasis during therapy.
Keywords: CCL2; CCR2; In vivo imaging; S100A8/A9; inflammation; monocytes; organ-specific metastasis; pre-metastatic niche.