Theranostics

Theranostics is a hybrid term that refers to the fusion of two words – therapy and diagnostics. The term was initially used in 1998 by John Funkhouser, who developed a test for monitoring the efficacy of a new anticoagulant drug.¹ 

The term theranostics was coined to explain developments in science to establish more specific and individualized therapies for various pathologies, and to bring about a union of diagnostic and therapeutic applications into a single agent, thus leading to a promising therapeutic paradigm involving diagnosis, drug delivery and monitoring of treatment response.² 

Theranostics plays an important role for both detection of malignant lesions throughout the body using tumor affinity compounds, and also treating lesions with radiotherapy emitted from beta- or alfa-emission from the same targeted radiolabeled compounds.³ 

Theranostics has been used for decades for the therapy of benign and malignant thyroid diseases. In recent years, theranostics is successfully applied to a whole range of other malignancies, including neuroendocrine tumors and prostate cancer.