Personalized Medicine in Cancer: Cancer is one of the most complex and challenging diseases in today’s world. Conventional treatment methods such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy often do not work equally well on every patient as each individual body and each tumour has a different biological structure. This creates the need for personalized medicine, where treatment is tailored to the needs of each patient and the characteristics of the tumor. This thinking has given rise to Theranostics, which is a precise and modern way of fighting cancer by combining diagnosis and treatment.
What is Theranostics
The strategy of combining diagnosis and treatment is referred to as theranostics. The first one is the detection of cancer cells in the body with an advanced molecular imaging technology like PET/CT. During this process, it identifies cancer-specific biomarkers that can be interpreted as what cells are sensitive to targeted treatment. Based on these principles, after this, drugs or radiation are conveyed to the cancer cells with radionuclide therapy. This is not just an accurate method but also a safe one because it destroys the cancerous cells in the body without leading to any damage to the normal body tissues.
How Theranostics Works
In order to explain the process of theranostics, it may be observed in three phases. The patient is given a special kind of diagnostic radiopharmaceutical first, which locates cancer cells in the body and makes them visible. Following this, the biomarkers within the said cells are detected using methods such as PET/CT. The data can aid physicians in choosing the kind of targeted therapy that will be the most effective. Lastly, a therapeutic radiopharmaceutical utilizing the same concept is administered to the patient that specifically targets the cancer cells and kills them. In all these processes, the healthy cells surrounding the patient are not at risk and hence the patient does not experience any other harm.
Advantages of Theranostics in Cancer Treatment
Theranostics has brought a new revolution in the field of cancer treatment. It provides completely personalized treatment to the patient. Every patient’s biological profile is different and this technology decides the treatment accordingly. Due to this, the treatment becomes more precise and effective.
The biggest advantage of Theranostics is that it limits the radiation only to the cancer cells and protects the healthy cells. This reduces the side effects to a great extent as compared to traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Apart from this, this technology also accurately decides the amount of medicine or radiation to be given to the patient. PET/CT scans show how much radiopharmaceutical the tumor is absorbing and the dose is decided based on that.
Theranostics allow for continuous monitoring during and after treatment. Doctors can see in real-time how effective the treatment is and can change the strategy if needed.
Most importantly, this technology causes the patient to suffer much less pain and discomfort than traditional treatments. This maintains his quality of life and he is able to tolerate the treatment better.
Examples of the use of theranostics
Today theranostics are being successfully used in many types of cancer. Prostate cancer is a prominent example of this, where cancer cells are identified through PSMA-Targeted PET Imaging and then Lutetium-177 therapy is given. This method has shown remarkable success in the treatment of prostate cancer and is being widely adopted.
This technique has long been used in thyroid cancer. Thyroid cells naturally absorb iodine and this is the principle behind radioiodine therapy. Imaging is done to see which cells are absorbing iodine and then treatment is given accordingly. This not only makes treatment more precise but also saves the patient from unnecessary drugs or radiation.
A new approach to cancer treatment
Traditional cancer treatments were often based on a “trial and error” method, in which doctors tried to see which drug would work on which patient. This method was time consuming and sometimes risky. Theranostics has completely changed this situation. It is able to predict in advance which patient will benefit from which treatment and which will not. This has made treatment more precise, faster and safer.
This technology is part of the broader idea of personalized medicine, which aims to provide treatment to each patient according to his biological needs. It is giving a new direction to medical science in fighting a complex disease like cancer.
Conclusion
Theranostics is the future of personalized medicine in cancer treatment. It is not only capable of identifying and precisely attacking cancer cells but is also helpful in maintaining the quality of life of the patient. With its help, treatment is no longer limited to eliminating the disease, but is focused on giving the patient a better life with less pain and fewer side effects.
In the future, as molecular imaging and radionuclide therapy make further progress, theranostics will prove effective in more types of cancer. This technology is truly a new hope for medical science and can become the most important pillar of cancer treatment in the coming years.