Stimulated Raman scattering imaging of cancer metabolism: New avenue to precision medicine

Cancer cells adopt metabolic pathways that differ from their normal counterparts by reprogramming metabolism of essential biomolecules to fuel rapid growth. Cancer metabolism is intrinsically heterogeneous and dynamic at the cellular level. This highlights an urgent need of developing novel imaging methods to study single cancer cell metabolism in situ. With the capability of high detection sensitivity, high molecular specificity, and high spatiotemporal resolution, stimulated Raman scattering microscopy integrated with Raman tagging offers a novel platform to discover hidden molecular signatures of cancer metabolism and further opens new avenue to precision diagnosis and treatment of human cancers.