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Theranostics in India: a Particularly Exquisite Concept or an Experimental Tool

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Abstract

The term theranostics is a combination of a diagnostic tool that helps to define a right therapeutic tool for specific disease and paves the approach towards personalized or precision medicine. In Nuclear Medicine, a diagnostic radionuclide is labeled with the target and once expression is documented, the same target is labeled with a therapeutic radionuclide and treatment is executed. The theranostic concept was applied first time in 1964 in the treatment of thyroid cancer with I-131 (RAI). Over the years, other theranostic radiotracers became available indigenously from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in the country. Currently Lu-177 is produced in India and peptides like DOTATATE and PSMA are available in a kit form indigenously. At the present time, the radionuclide therapies of oncological disorders which are being performed in India are mainly for neuroendocrine tumors (NET) and metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The main constraints pertaining to this concept is the cost of treatment and awareness among the clinicians which are gradually being taken care of by the private health insurance and our participation in disease management group meetings respectively. The theranostic concept has become popular over the years and has the potential for sustained growth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Partha S. Choudhury & Manoj Gupta

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  1. Partha S. Choudhury
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  2. Manoj Gupta
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Correspondence to Partha S. Choudhury.

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Partha S Choudhury and Manoj Gupta declares that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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The institutional review board of our institute approved this retrospective study, and the requirement to obtain informed consent was waived.

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Choudhury, P.S., Gupta, M. Theranostics in India: a Particularly Exquisite Concept or an Experimental Tool. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 53, 92–95 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-019-00577-y

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