Cancer Theranostics: An Introduction

Cancer theranostics combines cancer diagnosis and cancer therapy, aiming for early diagnosis, accurate molecular imaging, and precise treatment at the right timing and proper dose, followed by real-time monitoring of treatment efficacy. This chapter provides an overview of the state-of-the-art of cancer theranostics from the selection of genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic biomarkers, applying molecular imaging techniques for in vivo measurement of cancer hallmarks, image-guided cancer interventions, citing examples of theranostic platforms triggered by light, magnetism, and sound to the design of nanoparticle platforms for codelivery of imaging labels and therapeutic drugs. The challenges of clinical translation of cancer theranostic approaches are also discussed.