Theranostics

Our highly-skilled theranostics team at NYU Langone has one goal: to provide the most effective, targeted cancer care possible. Sitting at the intersection of diagnostics and therapeutics, theranostics is a form of precision cancer care that uses imaging to view the administration and distribution of radioactive cancer-fighting drugs within a patient’s body.

Who Is a Candidate for Theranostics Imaging Treatments?

At NYU Langone, we use theranostics to treat the following conditions:

• metastatic prostate cancer
• gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs)
• thyroid cancer

Following a diagnosis, ask your oncologist whether theranostics treatments may be right for you.

Once our team has received a referral from your doctor, we review your eligibility and insurance information before scheduling a consultation with one of our nuclear medicine physicians. From there, our team works to craft a treatment plan tailored specifically to your unique needs. This may include:

• determining the type and number of treatments needed
• creating testing and clinical treatment care plans to occur in-between theranostics sessions (e.g. blood tests and symptom monitoring)
• outlining follow-up imaging needs (e.g. PET, CT, and MRI)

Physicians wishing to make a referral to our team can learn more information here.

What to Expect

Theranostics services at NYU Langone are performed in an outpatient setting, and are generally conducted in two phases, over the course of a few weeks. In both the diagnostic and therapy phases of your treatment, our team begins by administering a radiotracer—or a chemical compound designed to diagnose, treat, and observe medical conditions within the body.

Diagnostic Phase

During the diagnostic phase, our experts inject an imaging radiotracer and perform a full-body PET scan. This enables our theranostics team to create a photographic map of where the radiotracer travels throughout your body. This process takes no more than a few hours.

Therapy Phase

In the therapy phase, a therapeutic radiotracer is placed intravenously, after which you are required to remain at the clinic for several hours for monitoring. After administration, the radiotracer binds itself to cancer cells and emits cell-damaging radiation to destroy these cells until the tracer is cleared from your body.

In many cases, patients may require as many as four to six therapy sessions in order to effectively treat their cancer. However, exact recommendations can vary depending on the type of disease being treated, along with other unique factors.

Side Effects of Theranostics

Common side effects of theranostics imaging treatments include:

• fatigue
• nausea
• dry mouth
• constipation or diarrhea
• bone pain
• anemia

Our team of experts work with your oncologist and other care providers to help manage these side effects.