On the way to nanotheranostics

Theranostics is an emerging field of medicine whose name is a combination of "therapeutics" and "diagnostics." The idea behind theranostics is to combine drugs and/or techniques to simultaneously—or sequentially—diagnose and treat medical conditions, and also monitor the response of the patient. This saves time and money, but can also bypass some of the undesirable biological effects that may arise when these strategies are employed separately.