What Is Theranostics?

https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/canc...

Theranostics is a growing field that's improving life expectancy and quality of life for many types of metastatic cancers (cancers that have spread), including prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, neuroendocrine tumors and neuroblastoma. A combination of therapeutics and diagnostics, theranostics works very differently from chemotherapy or traditional radiation treatments. Theranostics uses special compounds called radiotracers, which are injected into the bloodstream.



Like using a GPS, the radiotracers travel through the body to target and bind to specific cancer cells, which are then visible on a PET scan. The first step is to use these radiotracers to simply identify the tumor cells in the body and determine if the patient is a good candidate for treatment. The second step is to add a more powerful radioactive component to the radiotracers that can kill the cancer.



By navigating a path which reduces the risk of harming nearby healthy tissues, the radiotracers can deliver targeted radiation to kill the cancer cells with lower side effects than many alternative treatments.



University of Chicago Medicine physicians are leaders in this drive for new theranostics and have contributed to clinical trials and research on these promising treatments. UChicago Medicine is the only Illinois hospital to have a medical cyclotron, which is a powerful machine capable of manufacturing new kinds of radiotracers. Our research team partners with experts at Argonne National Laboratory, an internationally renowned facility that has provided instrumental research on using radiation to treat cancer.