. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jan 31.

Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Cancer. 2012 Apr 5;12(5):363–368. doi: 10.1038/nrc3235

Table 1.

Overview of intravital imaging approaches in preclinical cancer research

	Type of Wave	Tissue Penetration Depth	Resolution	Supports label-free	Supported labels
Optical Coherence Tomography	near infrared light	1–2 mm	1–20 μm	Yes	nanoparticles magnetic particles near infrared dyes
Fluorescence Microscopy	visible/near infrared light	~300–800 μm	1–5 μm	Limited	visible and near infrared fluorophores
Ultrasound	sound	cm	50 μm	Yes	Microbubbles
Computed Tomography	x-ray	no limit	50 μm	Yes	Iodine
Positron Emission Tomography	gamma rays	no limit	1–2 mm	No	Radionuclides (e.g., F-18)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging	RF	no limit	10–100 μm	Yes	magnetic/paramagnetic
Bioluminescence	visible light	cm	60 μm - cms	No	luciferins
Photoacoustic Imaging	visible/near infrared light and sound	cm	5 μm – 1 mm	Yes	near infrared dyes nanoparticles