High-resolution microscopy for imaging cancer pathobiology.

Purpose of review: Light microscopy plays an essential role in clinical diagnosis and understanding the pathogenesis of cancer. Conventional bright-field microscope is used to visualize abnormality in tissue architecture and nuclear morphology, but often suffers from many limitations. This review focuses on the potential of new imaging techniques to improve basic and clinical research in pathobiology.

Recent findings: Light microscopy has significantly expanded its ability in resolution, imaging volume, speed and contrast. It now allows 3D high-resolution volumetric imaging of tissue architecture from large tissue and molecular structures at nanometer resolution.

Summary: Pathologists and researchers now have access to various imaging tools to study cancer pathobiology in both breadth and depth. Although clinical adoption of a new technique is slow, the new imaging tools will provide significant new insights and open new avenues for improving early cancer detection, personalized risk assessment and identifying the best treatment strategies.