Preclinical multi-physiologic monitoring of immediate-early responses to diverse treatment strategies in breast cancer by optoacoustic imaging.

Optoacoustic imaging enables the measurement of tissue oxygen saturation (sO) and blood perfusion while being utilized for detecting tumor microenvironments. Our aim was to employ multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) to assess immediate-early changes of hemoglobin level and sO within breast tumors during diverse treatments. Mouse breast cancer models were allocated into four groups: control, everolimus (EVE), paclitaxel (PTX), and photodynamic therapy (PDT). Hemoglobin was quantified daily, as well as sO and blood perfusion were verified by immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. MSOT showed a temporal window of enhanced oxygenation and improved perfusion in EVE and PTX groups, while sO consistently remained below baseline in PDT. The same results were obtained for the IHC. Therefore, MSOT can monitor tumor hypoxia and indirectly reflect blood perfusion in a non-invasive and non-labeled way, which has the potential to monitor breast cancer progression early and enable individualized treatment in clinical practice.