Each year, World Theranostics Day gives us a reason to pause and recognize the rapid progress of a field that’s transforming medicine from the inside out. Theranostics is no longer a futuristic concept. It’s real, it’s here, and it’s saving lives.
As Chief Medical Advisor at BAMF Health, with nearly two decades of experience in Nuclear Medicine and Theranostics across Europe and the U.S., I’ve seen firsthand how powerful this approach can be. This article is both a celebration and a call to action—because the future of medicine is being shaped by what we do today.
What is Theranostics?
At its core, Theranostics combines therapy and diagnostics, using the same molecular target to find and treat disease. At BAMF, “we trace the disease, then treat it at its source – it’s about seeking and striking.”
First, we locate disease using a radiopharmaceutical that binds to specific markers on diseased cells. Then, we deliver targeted therapy to those same cells, all while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.
This approach is powered by radiopharmaceuticals—small radioactive compounds injected into the body. These agents emit signals picked up by PET or SPECT/CT scans, allowing us to visualize disease in real time. When paired with a therapeutic agent, the same targeting mechanism delivers precise radiation therapy directly to the disease site.
For patients, this means more accurate diagnoses, fewer side effects, and often, more time with the ones they love.
A New Standard in Precision Medicine
Theranostics is a paradigm shift in how we diagnose and treat disease. By tailoring care to the biology of an individual’s illness, Theranostics enables personalized, targeted therapy with unparalleled accuracy.
Of course, Theranostics is part of a larger movement toward personalized medicine. Many other modern treatments like targeted cancer drugs guided by genetic testing or immunotherapies custom-built for a patient’s immune profile also strive to tailor care to the individual. These approaches have made great strides by matching therapies to specific characteristics of a patient’s disease.
What makes Theranostics different is that it pairs diagnosis and therapy in one seamless process. It takes the concept of personalized medicine a step further by using the exact same “search-and-destroy” mechanism to first find the disease and then attack it. In other words, we can see the cancer at the molecular level and then treat it at that precise target.
This unified approach leads to an exceptionally high level of precision. Physicians can confirm that a tumor has the right target before delivering therapy and then send radiation directly to those cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue. The result is a treatment impact that other methods often cannot match.
And it’s already saving lives. Today, FDA-approved radiopharmaceutical therapies exist for neuroendocrine tumors, advanced prostate cancer, and thyroid cancer, among others. These treatments are especially powerful in cases where traditional therapies have failed or caused significant side effects. Where conventional options might only slow the disease or come with harsh side effects, Theranostics can zero in on tumor cells with minimal collateral damage. This translates into new hope for patients who previously had few, if any, effective options.
Challenges and Barriers
Despite its promise, Theranostics still faces significant barriers to widespread adoption:
- Limited awareness among patients, providers, and payers: Because Theranostics is relatively new, many patients don’t even know these life-saving therapies exist. Likewise, some healthcare providers outside of major centers may be unfamiliar with referring or offering these treatments, and insurance payers may not fully understand their value. This knowledge gap can lead to missed opportunities for patients to receive cutting-edge care, and it creates hesitancy among insurers to cover these innovations.
- Insufficient infrastructure in many regions: Theranostics relies on advanced infrastructure including specialized imaging equipment, radiopharmaceutical production facilities, and treatment centers with rigorous radiation safety measures. In many areas, hospitals and clinics lack specialized equipment like PET or SPECT scanners—PET to identify the right patients, and SPECT to track where the drug goes during treatment and guide subsequent care decisions—along with the trained staff needed to safely deliver and monitor these advanced therapies. Building these capabilities is expensive and time-consuming, meaning patients often must travel long distances to a Theranostics center or go without this therapy altogether.
- Shortage of trained specialists, including radiopharmacists, nuclear medicine physicians, and technologists: Delivering Theranostics requires a team of highly trained professionals, including radiopharmacists, physicians specialized in molecular targeted radiation therapy and molecular imaging, and nuclear medicine technologists. The global pool of such experts remains limited, and training new specialists takes years. This shortage can lead to longer wait times for patients and leave entire regions without the necessary expertise to offer Theranostics treatments.
- Complex regulatory pathways that can delay access: As an emerging approach, Theranostics treatments must navigate complex regulatory pathways. Each new radiopharmaceutical therapy undergoes rigorous clinical trials and must satisfy both drug approval agencies and nuclear regulatory bodies. These multi-layered requirements can slow down the arrival of new options and delay patient access to cutting-edge care.
That’s why BAMF Health is not only treating patients but also investing in education, workforce development, national expansion, and the rapid deployment of clinical trials. These efforts help overcome barriers and bring Theranostics to more people faster.
What’s on the Horizon?
Theranostics is just getting started, and clinical research is rapidly expanding its reach.
Today, dozens of clinical trials are exploring new molecular targets and Theranostics applications in cancers where treatment options are limited, such as lung, pancreatic, breast, and brain tumors. These trials are essential to bringing Theranostics to the patients who need it most.
And the potential goes beyond cancer.
While most current radiopharmaceutical therapies focus on oncology, targeted radiopharmaceutical imaging is making waves in other serious diseases as well. These include:
- Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
- Cardiac conditions including sarcoidosis and amyloidosis
- Inflammatory and fibrotic disorders
- PTSD, chronic pain, and endometriosis
These imaging tools help us detect disease early, understand its biology, and guide personalized treatment decisions—even if the ultimate treatment isn’t radioactive. In this way, Theranostics also serves as a gateway to precision medicine more broadly.
For clinicians unfamiliar with radiopharmaceuticals, this represents a new diagnostic lens that reveals not just where disease is but how it behaves at the molecular level.
At the same time, technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are transforming how we interpret imaging data and personalize care. From automating image analysis to predicting therapy response, AI is becoming a crucial tool in the Theranostics toolkit.
For investors, the growth trajectory is undeniable. Major pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis and Eli Lilly have made multi-billion-dollar investments in radiopharmaceutical companies, and the clinical pipeline of potential new treatments is robust. The challenge now is to scale up access, and platforms like BAMF Health are uniquely positioned to deliver on that need.
Our Commitment to Advancing Theranostics
BAMF Health is fully committed to turning the promise of Theranostics into reality. As the first center of its kind built specifically for Theranostics, we are tackling these challenges head-on and leading the way forward.
We’re raising awareness by educating patients and healthcare providers about radiopharmaceutical therapy and expanding our footprint so that more communities have access to this care. We are also training the next generation of Theranostics specialists through partnerships and programs that grow the workforce this field needs. And by collaborating with industry and policymakers, we’re working to streamline the complex regulatory pathways and help innovative treatments reach patients faster.
To support this future, we established the Foundation for Medical Advancement and Breakthroughs(FMAB), dedicated to funding research, expanding access, and supporting patients and providers alike.
Theranostics represents one of the most exciting frontiers in modern medicine, offering a smarter, more personalized, and more compassionate approach to care.
But it’s only the beginning.
As we celebrate World Theranostics Day, we invite patients, clinicians, researchers, and investors to join us. Help us raise awareness. Support clinical trials. Champion access and spread the word that the future of medicine is already here and it’s saving lives.
