Quantitative cell imaging approaches to metastatic state profiling

Abstract

Genetic heterogeneity of metastatic dissemination has proven challenging to identify exploitable markers of metastasis; this bottom-up approach has caused a stalemate between advances in metastasis and the late stage of the disease. Advancements in quantitative cellular imaging have allowed the detection of morphological phenotype changes specific to metastasis, the morphological changes connected to the underlying complex signaling pathways, and a robust readout of metastatic cell state. This review focuses on the recent machine and deep learning developments to gain detailed information about the metastatic cell state using light microscopy. We describe the latest studies using quantitative cell imaging approaches to identify cell appearance-based metastatic patterns. We discuss how quantitative cancer biologists can use these frameworks to work backward toward exploitable hidden drivers in the metastatic cascade and pioneering new Frontier drug discoveries specific for metastasis.