theranostics meaning - Viral Trends
Theranostics, or theragnostics, [1] refers to the combination of diagnosis and therapy (treatment) of disease in a single medical intervention or technique. The word theranostics is a combination of the words “therapy” and “diagnostics,” and theranostics does just that. It uses radioisotopes to first image a patient’s tumor for diagnostics and then therapeutically treat that tumor.
Understanding the Context
It’s called “theranostics,” because it combines therapy and diagnostics by using radioactive agents that first identify and then destroy individual cancer cells. Combining the words "therapeutic" and "diagnostic," theranostics, also called theragnostics, represent a significant leap forward in precision medicine, offering hope to patients who may have exhausted traditional treatment options. Theranostics is the combination of two approaches—diagnostics and therapeutics—applied for decades in cancer imaging using radiopharmaceuticals or paired radiopharmaceuticals to image and selectively treat various cancers. The term “theranostics” is a blend of “therapeutics” and “diagnostics,” reflecting its core principle of combining these two medical functions.
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Key Insights
This approach uses agents that both identify disease and deliver therapy. As a starting point, we define theranostics as a combination of molecularly targeted imaging and therapy in which imaging provides actionable information that enables new or more effective therapies. The discussion detailed everything from the literal definition of theranostics to where the future of theranostics might lie, such as combinations with immunotherapy.