Co-localization of hypoxia and perfusion markers with parameters of glucose metabolism in human tumour xenografts

Tumour hypoxia measured by biochemical markers such as pimonidazole and parameters of the glucose metabolism such as lactate concentration have been shown to correlate with outcome after fractionated radiotherapy in experimental and clinical tumours and might serve as potential candidates for treatment individualization. High resolution imaging of tumour pathophysiology allows to study not only average values per tumour but also to investigate the spatial variations in hypoxia, perfusion, and energy metabolism. To examine relationships between hypoxia marker pimonidazole, perfusion marker Hoechst and the parameters of metabolic micromilieu such as glucose and lactate at the microregional level serial histological sections were explored for co-localization in 3 different human squamous cell carcinomas (hSCC) growing in nude mice