Cell
death plays a prominent role in the treatment of cancer, because
most anticancer therapies act by the induction of cell death including
apoptosis, necrosis, and other pathways of cell death. Imaging cell
death helps to identify treatment responders from nonresponders and
thus enables patient-tailored therapy, which will increase the likelihood
of treatment response and ultimately lead to improved patient survival.
By taking advantage of molecular probes that specifically target the
biomarkers/biochemical processes of cell death, cell death imaging
can be successfully achieved. In recent years, with the increased
understanding of the molecular mechanism of cell death, a variety
of well-defined biomarkers/biochemical processes of cell death have
been identified. By targeting these established cell death biomarkers/biochemical
processes, a set of molecular imaging probes have been developed and
evaluated for early monitoring treatment response in tumors. In this
review, we mainly present the recent advances in identifying useful
biomarkers/biochemical processes for both apoptosis and necrosis imaging
and in developing molecular imaging probes targeting these biomarkers/biochemical
processes, with a focus on their application in early evaluation of
tumor response to therapy.