Theranostics is an advanced medical technology that uses radioactive medicine (called radiopharmaceuticals) to combine diagnostic imaging and therapy. This combination of diagnosis and therapy provides our patients with a customized and targeted treatment option.
Radiopharmaceuticals have two parts: a targeting part and a radioactive part. The targeting part binds to a specific target on the tumor cell surface. Then, the radioactive part releases energy that either creates images (diagnostic imaging) or destroys cancer cells (therapy).
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Several theranostic radiopharmaceuticals are now approved for different cancer types. Others are currently being tested in clinical trials:
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How Theranostics Works
Theranostics is a way to provide personalized medicine through targeted diagnosis and therapy. Theranostics uses pairs of diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals (or radioactive medicine) to identify and treat particular tumors.
First, a diagnostic imaging test determines if a specific target is present on a patient’s cancer cells. If the imaging test shows the target on the cancer cells, the patient may then be eligible to receive targeted radiopharmaceutical therapy.