Illuminating the tumor microenvironment non-invasively in patients–lessons learnt and path forward

Hunter College of the City University of New York
Department of Biological Sciences
Spring 2025 Inga Richter Seminar Series

Aditi Sahu, PhD
MSK Cancer Center

Illuminating the tumor microenvironment non-invasively in patients–lessons learnt and path forward

Although a highly dynamic entity, the existing knowledge on tumor microenvironment predominantly stems from in vitro and ex vivo models, leaving substantial room for in vivo imaging approaches to reveal key insights about the dynamic interactions. In vivo imaging directly in human patients can achieve precise spatial and temporal resolution, and lead to identification, characterization and tracking of clinically relevant cellular and molecular changes associated with cancer behavior, including treatment response and cancer progression. Leveraging a high-resolution label-free microscopy in human patients, we are studying the inter-dependency between inflammation and vasculature that can indicate underlying immune states, phenotype the tumor microenvironment and achieve tumor landscaping for immunosuppressive features. Image-guided sampling is helping confirm the in vivo findings and setting the stage for uncovering molecular clues that correlate with specific tumor and tumor microenvironment morphology. These findings have implications in predicting treatment response, patient stratification and identification of novel targets.