MRIs enable non-invasive tracking of emerging cell therapies

Cellular therapeutics - using intact cells to treat and cure disease - is a hugely promising new approach in medicine but it is hindered by the inability of doctors and scientists to effectively track the movements, destination and persistence of these cells in patients without resorting to invasive procedures, like tissue sampling. In a paper published in the online journal Magnetic Resonance in Medicine , researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh and elsewhere describe the first human tests of using a perfluorocarbon tracer in combination with non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging to track therapeutic immune cells injected into patients with colorectal cancer .

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