Radiolabelled Peptides: Optimal Candidates for Theranostic Application in Oncology.

Theranostics are drugs suitable for use in both diagnostic and therapeutic applications, and have played an important role in the advancement of modern nuclear medicine. This review explains key elements that are common to successful theranostics and highlights significant developments in the field, including our own. Specific focus is given to peptides and those features that make them most suitable for theranostic application, as well as some key radioisotopes owing to their favourable properties and high clinical utility. This report provides an overview of the techniques at the researcher's disposal, how they have been applied to current clinically significant targets, and how they might be used and improved upon for future targets. Diagnosis and therapy using the same radioactive peptide (theranostics) is a paradigm-changing form of personalised medicine for cancer management with striking efficacy and low toxicity. The ability of theranostics to 'see what you treat' facilitates personalised patient management and allows rapid translation from bench to patient by enabling direct visualisation and quantification of the target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]