Theranostics

If you’ve been told you’re not a good candidate for traditional treatment options, theranostics may be for you.

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If you’ve been told you’re not a good candidate for traditional cancer treatment options, your provider may recommend theranostics.

Theranostics is a groundbreaking cancer treatment that combines diagnostics with therapy. It links radiation to molecular targets, allowing specialists to selectively target cancer cells with radiation without damaging the healthy tissue that surrounds it.

University of Iowa Health Care Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center has more than a dozen active and pending theranostics clinical trials to give you access to the latest treatment options.

How theranostics works

Theranostics is unique in that it allows physicians to see the specific receptors on cancer cells (diagnostic) and target them with precision (therapeutic).

The diagnostic phase of theranostics

Tumor cells have a shell called a membrane. Researchers can target cancer cells by pinpointing the receptors on the tumor membrane. To do so, a radioactive, diagnostic drug is injected into your veins and travels throughout the bloodstream to all organs and tissues of the body. If you have a cancerous tumor that has these receptors, the drug will bind to the receptors and will light up on a PET (positron emission tomography) scan.

The therapeutic phase of theranostics

Once the cancer has been diagnosed using the PET scan, the diagnostic drug is replaced with a radionuclide drug that can target and kill the cells that have the receptors on their membranes. These therapeutic drugs bind to the receptor proteins like a key in a lock, allowing the drug to enter the tumor cells and kill it by damaging the cell’s DNA. Healthy cells around the tumor do not have the receptor proteins on their membrane, so they are not affected by the treatment.

Are you a candidate for theranostics?

While theranostics can be used to treat many different types of cancer, it is commonly used to treat neuroendocrine, thyroid, or prostate cancers.

It is also an effective option for patients who have been told they are not a good candidate for traditional treatments such as surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy.