Word of the day: theranostics

Originally posted by @sonhouse
The idea of making diagnostic and therapy in one agent:

From the NIH:
"The term “theranostics” was coined to define ongoing efforts in clinics to develop more specific, individualized therapies for various diseases, and to combine diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities into a single agent.Aug 4, 2010"

Personalized medicine seems as obvious to me as a concept as evidence based medicine. Yet for some reason both appear to be relatively new concepts to the medical repertoire.

I couldn't find this term anywhere on the NIH website. But there are some articles about it. It seems like a no-brainer to frame diagnosis and treatment around the range of therapies that a patient is willing/able to undergo. For example, there is no point in diagnosing breast or prostate cancer in someone who is 85 years old, because the best treatment for this in the elderly is to do nothing. Sooo, if you're not going to treat it, why waste resources diagnosing it.

A similar case could be made for people who would be unwilling to treat an illness for religious or philosophical reasons.