Assessment of tumour angiogenesis using Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound

Microbubbles are useful for imaging tumor angiogenesis and relatively crude forms of this approach ire now routinely used for subjective diagnosis, especially in the liver. More sophisticated methods use quantitative approaches to measure the amount and the time course of bolus or reperfusion Curves and have shown great promise in revealing effective tumour response to anti-angiogenic drugs in humans before tumour shrinkage occurs. These are beginning to be accepted into clinical practice. In the long term, targeted microbubbles for molecular imaging and eventually, for directed anti-tumour therapy arc expected to be tested.