About Theragnostic Care

At Stanford Health Care, the Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging team is helping to lead the development and growing use of theragnostic care. A combination of “therapy” and “diagnostics,” this innovative approach can help treat patients with a range of conditions, including thyroid cancer, prostate cancer that has spread to bone, hyperthyroidism, and neuroendocrine tumors (NET).

The theragnostic care process has two phases:

Phase 1: To locate cancer, a doctor specially trained in theragnostic care uses leading-edge molecular probes and diagnostic imaging equipment to precisely locate and define areas of disease. (The probe is sometimes called a “molecular probe” because it looks for a specific kind of molecule).

Phase 2: The doctor uses this same molecular probe to deliver targeted therapies to treat the cancer while preserving healthy tissue around it. These therapies are referred to as “radiopharmaceuticals” because they contain limited amounts of radioactive materials. Your nuclear medicine specialist has special training and will discuss with you the risks and benefits of treatment.

Additionally, the diagnostic technique may be used again after the targeted therapy is delivered to see how you and your body respond to treatment. Combining the diagnostic component with therapy is known as using “paired radiopharmaceuticals.”

Theragnostic care is precision medicine that helps to show the biology behind each type of cancer and how it responds to certain treatments. As such, it enables your doctors to develop a precise treatment plan personalized to your particular needs.