Theranostics
Cancer diagnosis and treatment / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Theranostics, also known as theragnostics,[1] is a technique commonly used in personalised medicine. For example in nuclear medicine, one radioactive drug is used to identify (diagnose) and a second radioactive drug is used to treat (therapy) cancerous tumors.[2][3][4] In other words, theranostics combines radionuclide imaging and radiation therapy which targets specific biological pathways.
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Technologies used for theranostic imaging include radiotracers, contrast agents, positron emission tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging.[3][5] It has been used to treat thyroid cancer and neuroblastomas.[3]
The term "theranostic" is a portmanteau of two words, therapeutic and diagnostic, thus referring to a combination of diagnosis and treatment that also allows for continuing medical assessment of a patient. The first known use of the term is attributed to John Funkhouser, a consultant for the company Cardiovascular Diagnostic, who used it in a press release in August 1998.[6]