Major cancer centers, including Mayo Clinic and MD Anderson, are expanding theranostics programs, which use one radioactive drug to find tumors on a scan and a matched radioactive drug to treat them, Modern Healthcare reported. The growth follows a string of FDA decisions that have made more patients eligible for these treatments.
For patients, the key point is that theranostics is not a general cancer therapy. FDA-approved uses cover a limited set of cancers, mainly advanced prostate cancer, certain neuroendocrine tumors, and thyroid cancer, and approved radioligand treatments require a scan showing that the tumor carries the right target.
