Recent research progress in interventional molecular imaging

In recent years, the rapid development of molecular imaging provides a powerful monitoring means in vivo for the studies of molecular biology and clinical targeted therapy, and for the studies of other related fields as well. However, many kinds of molecular imaging techniques have some limitations in clinical application. At present, the utilization of these techniques in the studies for large animals and even for human beings has been greatly restricted, which makes the molecular imaging can only be used for basic imaging studies in small animals or for pre- clinical researches. The emergence of interventional molecular imaging technique provides a new way to solve this series of problems. By optimizing the placement mode of molecular probe and improving currently used molecular imaging technology, etc. it is possible that the application of molecular imaging technology can be widely extended from the limited use for the basic studies in the small animals to the clinical application researches in larger animals, and ultimately it will provide an important transformation bridge from experimental studies to clinical practice. At the same time, the interventional molecular imaging combines the molecular imaging diagnosis and clinical targeted therapy together, for this reason, interventional molecular imaging will undoubtedly become an important force to promote clinical targeted therapy and individualized treatment, and will certainly produce a revolutionary impact on the clinical diagnosis and treatment in future. Therefore, the interventional molecular imaging is the important development direction of interventional radiology in near future.