Intravital microscopy in the study of the tumor microenvironment: from bench to human application

// Emmanuel M. Gabriel 1 , Daniel T. Fisher 2 , Sharon Evans 2 , Kazuaki Takabe 3 and Joseph J. Skitzki 2, 3 1 Department of Surgery, Section of Surgical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA 2 Department of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA 3 Department of Surgical Oncology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA Correspondence to: Joseph J. Skitzki, email: joseph.skitzki@roswellpark.org Keywords: intravital microscopy; vasculature; lymphocyte; trafficking Received: January 18, 2018      Accepted: March 15, 2018      Published: April 13, 2018 ABSTRACT Intravital microscopy (IVM) is a dynamic imaging modality that allows for the real time observation of biologic processes in vivo , including angiogenesis and immune cell interactions. In the setting of preclinical cancer models, IVM has facilitated an understanding of the tumor associated vasculature and the role of effector immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. Novel approaches to apply IVM to human malignancies have thus far focused on cancer diagnosis and tumor vessel characterization, but have the potential to provide advances in the field of personalized medicine by identifying individual patients who may respond to systemically delivered chemotherapeutic drugs or immunotherapeutic agents. In this review, we highlight the role that IVM has had in investigating tumor vasculature and the tumor microenvironment in preclinical studies and discuss its current and future applications to directly observe human tumors.