Theranostics unit at GenesisCare offers new therapy for prostate cancer

Theranostics is a personalised approach to treating cancer, using both diagnosis and therapy tools as part of the treatment. Theranostics uses PET scan imaging (a special type of scan) to see if specific targets, known as tumour receptors, are present on tumour cells.

If these targets are present and visible on the scan, a radioactive drug is used to treat the tumours. The drug is given as an injection and selectively targets the tumour cells while avoiding healthy areas. Most of the radioactive drug that doesn’t reach the target is quickly passed out of the body.

Theranostics can be used to treat cancers that have spread (metastasised), or where cancer is advanced and/or hasn’t responded to other treatments.

While in the future theranostics may be used for different cancers, to date most experience and success has been in metastatic prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumours.