This is also a called targeted radionuclide therapy as it is aimed at the particular molecular target of the functioning cancer cells. Therefore, a higher dose of radiation can be targeted at the tumour without affecting many normal healthy cells.

How theranostics is different from traditional radiotherapy?

Radiation therapy can be highly effective in treating cancer, or alleviating symptoms in patients with untreatable advanced stage cancers. Approximately half of all cancer patients will receive radiation therapy at some point in their treatment, which uses externally or internally delivered x-rays, protons or other high energy particles to target and destroy cancer cells. While improved technological approaches have reduced healthy tissue deterioration, traditional radiotherapy still causes side effects that can be difficult for some patients to tolerate. In addition, traditional radiotherapy is unable to target more than one site of disease, limiting its utility for patients with metastatic cancer. However, traditional radiotherapy remains one of oncology’s most powerful treatment tools.

This novel approach to tumour treatment — targeted radionuclide therapy — is reengineering the use of radiation treatments in precision oncology and delivering a new class of cancer therapies. The goal of targeted radionuclide therapy development is to combine alpha-, beta- or gamma-particle emitting isotopes — or radionuclides — with peptides, antibodies, or small molecules, to develop therapies with high specificity for certain types of tumors. Delivered to the patient intravenously, targeted radionuclide therapies are designed to travel directly to the tumor to deliver therapeutic radiation with high precision. This precision is intended to focus delivery of the radiation to the tumour tissue while minimizing radiation exposure to normal tissue.

What type of cancer can be treated with theranostics?

Theranostics can be effective in treating metastatic, inoperable tumours in the advanced stage of disease including prostate cancers, neuroendocrine tumours of various organs like stomach, pancreas, small & large intestines and lung. Last but not the least, post-operative ablation of residual thyroid remnant and treatment of metastatic thyroid cancer is also in the gamut of theranostics.

The above cancers have sufficient evidence available currently that there is a definite benefit in using radionuclide therapy. However, many other cancers may also have a benefit when they express certain types of target receptors like fibroblast activation protein (FAP) and chemokine receptors (CXCR4), can be targeted with theranostics.