Radiopharmaceutical

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A medicinal compound that contains a radioactive isotope, used to diagnose disease or to treat conditions such as cancer
2. A pharmaceutical preparation incorporating a radioactive element, administered to patients for imaging or targeted therapy
3. Any drug made with a radioactive substance that is given to a patient so doctors can visualize organs or destroy diseased tissue

Etymology: Radiopharmaceuticals are drugs that carry a radioactive element, used in medicine for both diagnosis and treatment. The word is a compound built from two parts: "radio-", from the Latin "radius" meaning "ray" or "spoke of a wheel", and "pharmaceutical", the adjective for drugs and medicines. Put together, the term describes a medicinal substance that emits radiation. The "radio-" element reaches English through the modern scientific vocabulary that grew up around radiation. Its Latin source, "radius", originally referred to a spoke or rod, and later came to mean a ray of light or a line radiating from a center. Scientists adopted the prefix to describe phenomena involving rays and emitted energy, and it then combined freely with other terms. The result is a word whose two halves each carry a separate history: one from geometry and light, the other from the long tradition of pharmacy. Joined together, they name a drug whose effect depends on the radiation it gives off.

Synonyms: radiotracer