Radionuclide Therapy and Theranostic Treatment

Radionuclide therapy uses radioactive substances called radiopharmaceuticals to treat medical conditions, particularly cancer. These are introduced into the body by various means and localise to specific locations, organs or tissues depending on their properties and administration routes.

Recently, the term Theranostics is also linked with radionuclide therapy.

Theranostics is a developing new approach to cancer treatment which may be suitable for some patients who have not responded to other therapies or who have complex metastases (i.e spread to multiple sites). This is a personalised approach of treating cancer, using both diagnosis and therapy tools as part of the treatment. Theranostics uses PET scan imaging to see if specific target, known as tumour receptors are present on tumour cells.

If these targets are present and visible on the scan, a radioactive pharmaceutical is used to treat the tumour. The drug is given as an injection and selectively targets the tumour cells while avoiding heathy tissues.