ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the nanotechnology applications for theranostic-based approaches in medicine, reviewing what is already being researched in the labs and their possible applications in the clinics, as well as other possibilities in the future of medicine and health care. Nanomedicine has brought the possibility to achieve better treatment and imaging capabilities to the clinic and even to achieve both of them at the same time. Prior to the concept of theranostics, nanomedicine had already used nanoparticles (NPs) to encapsulate drugs and imaging agents, although in separate carriers. There are numerous agents that have already been successfully coencapsulated inside a wide variety of NPs such as lipid NPs, polymeric NPs, dendrimers, silica NPs, iron oxide NPs, gold NPs, quantum dots and nanocarbons. The discovery of the theranostic NPs brings new possibilities to the future of medicine, such as a potential simultaneous diagnosis, treatment, and imaging without the use of toxic drugs with adverse side effects for the patients.
