Theranostics is an exciting “new field” of medicine and specifically nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. Theranostics is a combination of the terms therapeutics and diagnostics. With a key focus on patient-centered care, theranostics provides a transition from conventional medicine to a contemporary personalized and precision approach. It can be described as the combination of using one radioactive drug to identify (diagnose) and a second radioactive drug to deliver therapy to treat the primary tumor and any metastatic tumors.
The origin of the term “theranostics” was first used around 2001, and even though theranostics may be considered a “new field” of medicine, the clinical concept has in reality been utilized for many years. For example, Iodine-131 has been used to diagnose and treat hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer for decades. There are a number of radiopharmaceuticals that have been approved to localize and treat cancer. A sampling of these agents includes I-131 MIBG, Lutetium-177 (Lu-177) Dotatate and PSMA, Radium-223 chloride, Yttrium-90, and Ga-68 which is a PET imaging agent. Many more are in the clinical pipeline to help diagnose and treat a variety of cancers.