Theranostic Gastrointestinal Endoscopy: Bringing Healing Light to the Lumen

Current conventional endoscopes have restricted the accuracy of treatment delivery and monitoring. Over the past decade, there have been major developments in nanotechnology and light triggered therapy, potentially allowing a better detection of challenging lesions and targeted treatment of malignancies in the gastrointestinal tract. Theranostics is a developing form of personalized medicine because it combines diagnosis and targeted treatment delivered in one step using advances in nanotechnology. This review describes the light-triggered therapies (including photodynamic, photothermal, and photoimmunotherapies), nanotechnological advances with nanopowder, nanostent, nanogels, and nanoparticles, enhancements brought to endoscopic ultrasound, in addition to experimental endoscopic techniques, combining both enhanced diagnoses and therapies, including a developed prototype of a “smart” multifunctional endoscope for localized colorectal cancer, near-infrared laser endoscope targeting the gastrointestinal stromal tumors, the concept of endocapsule for obscure gastrointestinal bleed, and a proof-of-concept therapeutic capsule using ultrasound-mediated targeted drug delivery. Hence, the following term has been proposed encompassing these technologies: “Theranostic gastrointestinal endoscopy.” Future efforts for integration of these technologies into clinical practice would be directed toward translational and clinical trials translating into a more personalized and interdisciplinary diagnosis and treatment, shorter procedural time, higher precision, higher cost-effectiveness, and less need for repetitive procedures.