Theranostic Program

Advanced Theranostic Program at Catholic Health

At Catholic Health, our dedicated cancer care team is committed to delivering the most advanced, innovative treatments available to ensure the best possible outcomes for our patients.

Our Theranostic Program utilizes powerful new technology to provide innovative oncology treatments that offer patients renewed hope, improved survival outcomes, and an enhanced quality of life.

What is Theranostics?

A Precisely Targeted Tool for Cancer Care

The word "theranostics" combines therapeutics (treatment) and diagnostics (testing) into a single, seamless approach. It is an advanced tool that allows our care team to see exactly where cancer cells are in the body and deliver highly targeted, cancer-fighting medicine directly to them.

Because this treatment is highly selective, it targets the cancer cells while leaving the surrounding healthy tissue virtually undamaged. For patients, this means a lower total amount of radiation, fewer side effects, and a treatment that is much easier to tolerate.

This advanced approach has shown significant positive results for several types of cancer, including prostate and neuroendocrine cancers.

Who Can Benefit from Theranostic Treatment?

Theranostics offers a highly personalized approach to care. It is frequently an option for patients with advanced or metastatic diseases, or for those whose cancer has not responded fully to standard systemic therapies. It may be used as treatment for:

Prostate Cancer
Neuroendocrine Tumors

As Catholic Health’s Theranostic Program continues to expand and research continues, this targeted therapy will pave the way for treating a broader range of medical conditions.

How Does Theranostics Work?

Theranostics bridges the gap between seeing your cancer and treating it. This advanced process happens in three steps:

Clear Diagnosis (The Map)

The process begins with an injection of a special compound called a radiotracer into your bloodstream. These smart compounds travel through the body and bind specifically to cancer cells. When you receive a PET scan, these cells light up clearly. This gives your physician a highly detailed visual map of the disease and provides objective proof before treatment even begins that the therapy will successfully find and attach to your tumor.

Targeted Therapy (The Mission)

Once your team confirms that the compound successfully binds to the cancer cells, the diagnostic component is swapped for a highly localized, cancer-fighting radioactive drug. Using the exact same pathway mapped out during your scan, this medicine travels straight to the target to neutralize the cancer cells from within.

Monitoring

PSA testing allows doctors to see if the treatment is working. PET scans may be performed on a case-by-case basis to track how the treatment has targeted the tumor and measure how the tumor is responding.

How Theranostics Fits into Comprehensive Cancer Care

Every cancer journey is unique, and effective treatment often requires approaching the disease from multiple angles.

Theranostics does not replace traditional therapies like surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. Instead, it offers a different level of precision that can be used at specific points in the treatment pathway — including, in some cases, alongside certain systemic therapies.

Working with Surgery

Surgery removes visible tumors. Theranostics targets cancer cells that are too small or too dispersed to be seen or removed surgically, helping address disease that may remain at the microscopic level.

Working with Radiation

External beam radiation treats cancer from outside the body. Theranostics delivers radiation internally, traveling through the bloodstream to reach cancer cells wherever they are located. These approaches operate through different mechanisms, and your care team determines when each is appropriate.

Working with Systemic Therapies

Traditional chemotherapy affects rapidly dividing cells throughout the body. Theranostics provides a targeted, cell-specific approach. While they are not typically given together, recent FDA approvals now allow certain theranostic treatments — such as Pluvicto — to be used in combination with hormonal therapy and androgen receptor pathway inhibitors when clinically appropriate.

Your Next Step

The Power of the Right Tool at the Right Time

Theranostics represents the future of personalized medicine—delivering the right treatment to the right place at the exact right moment. By bridging the gap between diagnosis and therapy, it empowers your oncology team with the insights needed to build a stronger, smarter, and more personalized treatment plan.

Speak with your oncologist to determine how theranostics can be integrated into your care strategy.