Tabriz University of Medical Sciences BioImpacts 2228-5652 1 3 2011 09 30 Smart Multifunctional Theranostics: Simultaneous Diagnosis and Therapy of Cancer 145 147 10.5681/bi.2011.019 EN Yadollah Omidi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0067-2475 EDITORIAL 10.5681/bi.2011.019 2011 09 10 2011 09 15 Clinical applications of advanced nanomedicines such as PEGylated liposomal doxorubicin and paclitaxel-albumin bioconjugates have significantly improved the cancer treatment strategies. However, these pharmaceuticals lack early detection and single cell tracking capabilities. Thus, engineering of smart multifunctional theranostics appear to be our next stepfor simultaneous diagnosis and therapy of cancer. Clinical translation of multifunctional theranostics appears to be dependent upon specificity of cancer biomarkers, biocompatibility of components used for formulation, and advancement of bioconjugation techniques. While many cancer biomarker candidates often fail to be used for clinical diagnosis/therapy because of their nonspecific functional expression in normal tissues, biocompatibility of materials used for bioconjugationalso needs to be approved. All these issues need to be fully addressed prior to the translation of smart multifunctional cancer theranostics.