Dear Colleagues,

The continuously increasing accuracy that can be achieved by clinical diagnostic disciplines such as radiology, nuclear medicine, and pathology is increasing due to the emergence of new applications of biomedical optics. This evolution has set the stage to extend the role that imaging plays in patient management. For example, modern imaging has the potential to guide (therapeutic) interventions and to help guide precision therapy. These interventions can be performed by the medical disciplines of, e.g., interventional radiology and nuclear medicine as well as surgery and radiotherapy. In addition to being guided by more traditional radiological and nuclear medicine modalities, there has been a rapid rise in the interventional use of magnetic and optical approaches, the latter including fluorescence-guided surgery and photodynamic therapy. Given the plurality of the diagnostic imaging techniques available for initial staging, each clinical challenge can be met with a tailored image guidance solution. The type of primary cancer or (nodal) metastases lesions being targeted may also substantially influence the choice of imaging guidance strategy. In general, however, in clinic pre-operative imaging, e.g., MRI, CT, PET/CT, and diffuse optical, imaging acts as a roadmap that treating physicians can use to navigate towards the target, representing a process that can be facilitated by “gps-like” navigation platforms. During the intervention itself, secondary modalities, e.g., (cone-beam) CT, US, radio, or optical guidance, are used to zoom in on the target and to assure that accurate treatment is delivered. In all cases, the fluent connection of pre-intervention and interventional imaging strategies poses specific technical challenges that demand the development of new imaging technologies. To make sure imaging strategies are accepted in routine clinical care, evidence that underscores how and to what extent image guidance creates a positive impact needs to be collected.

This Special Issue aims to provide an up-to-date overview of the most recent (technical) advances in the field of image-guided oncological interventions. For a variety of cancers and interventions, we will cover the in vivo use of innovative image guidance technologies for a wide range of modalities. Translational efforts and work that demonstrate the benefits for patients and/or treating physicians is of particular interest.

Prof. Dr. Fijs W.B. Van Leeuwen
Prof. Dr. Timothy C. Zhu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• interventional radiology

• interventional nuclear medicine
• image guided therapy
• image guided surgery
• molecular imaging
• local treatment
• surgical navigation
• Photodynamic therapy
• Biomedical photonics
• Diffuse optical imaging