On June 3rd, the Theranostics Trial Center (TTC) was inaugurated as a new section within the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Hospital Physics, Medical Diagnostics Karolinska (MDK) with an academic base within the Department of Oncology-Pathology at Karolinska Institutet.
The term theranostics refers to the combination of therapy and diagnostics. In theranostics, radiolabeled targeted drugs are used first to identify/diagnose (with a diagnostic isotope) a "target" and then, in the next step, to treat the cancer (with a therapeutic isotope) of the same drug, a process known as radionuclide therapy or targeted drugs. Radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) has significantly improved the treatment of various cancers.
TTC focuses on early-phase clinical trials of radiolabelled targeted drugs for diagnosing and treating cancer patients. TTC is composed of a multidisciplinary team from different Departments at Karolinska Institutet (Oncology-Pathology, Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology) and Centre for Imaging Research (CIR) and functions within Karolinska University Hospital, such as imaging specialists in nuclear medicine, medical physics, oncology and radiopharmacy.
-In addition to significant health economic savings, patients can avoid unnecessary treatment with unwanted side effects, thereby maintaining their quality of life," says one of the founders, Professor Rimma Axelsson, consultant and professor at Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery.
