Cancer is a group of complex diseases characterized by uncontrolled cell growth, affecting millions of people each year. Early and accurate diagnosis is crucial for successful treatment and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays a powerful role in enabling it. MRI is a safe, whole-body imaging technique, which serves to visualize anatomical details. This information is valuable for diagnosis and treatment planning. However, compared to other imaging modalities, MRI suffers from low sensitivity, which hampers the detection of specific tumour characteristics, like overexpressed enzymes or receptors. Knowing these characteristics of a tumour cell is crucial for personalized therapeutic approaches and improving the imaging of these characteristics could prevent the use of invasive biopsy, needed to start certain cancer type specific treatment.
In this thesis of Ilse Welleman, the challenges discussed above are addressed by exploring two approaches. The first approach relies on developing of responsive contrast agents for MRI that can image a specific tumour characteristics like enzyme activity or receptor expression. These responsive contrast agents will cause a change in the MRI signal when encountering the targeted enzyme or receptor, which potentially can lead to improved diagnostic efficacy. The second approach focuses on the development of light-responsive therapeutic compounds, aiming to optimize treatment efficacy and to reduce treatment side effects. Altogether, this thesis presents two novel approaches that address specific challenges in cancer detection and treatment. Furthermore, in combination with suitable diagnostic counterparts, these approaches pave the way for theranostic applications.
