Background: Quantitative analysis of tumour angiogenesis is an indispensable prerequisite for the development of novel antivascular treatment strategies. The aim of this study was to develop an automated analysis technique enabling quantitative assessment of complete tumour vascular networks non-invasively in vivo.
Materials and methods: Experiments were performed in A-Mel-3 implanted in transparent dorsal skinfold chambers of the Syrian Golden hamster. Tumours were imaged in two dimensions by means of a computer controlled scanning-table combined with intravital microscopy. Functional vessel density was automatically quantified online with a digital imaging application package.
Results: Data for functional vessel density correlated excellently with data obtained by off-line video-based frame-by-frame analysis (R((S))=0.947, r(2)=0.959, n=48).
Conclusion: This new technique enables automated, quantitative assessment of complete tumour vascular networks and therefore provides a promising tool to characterise changes of the entire tumour vascularity in response to antivascular treatment regimes.