Radiopharmaceuticals

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A category of drugs that incorporate radioactive substances for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes in medical imaging and treatment
2. Medicinal compounds designed with radioactive elements, utilized for imaging the function of organs or treating specific diseases
3. Pharmaceuticals containing radioisotopes, employed in both the diagnosis of conditions via imaging techniques and the therapy of certain illnesses

Etymology: The plural "radiopharmaceuticals" is the form of "radiopharmaceutical," a compound built from "radio-" and "pharmaceutical." The first part comes from Latin "radius," meaning a ray or spoke of a wheel, and in English it became a combining form used for anything involving radiation or radioactive material. The second part, "pharmaceutical," is an adjective meaning relating to drugs and their preparation, drawn from Greek "pharmakon," which could mean both medicine and poison. Put together, the compound names a drug in which a radioactive isotope has been attached to a molecule that the body handles in a predictable way. Doctors can then follow where the drug travels, or deliver radiation to a targeted area, which explains why the same class of substances serves both diagnosis and treatment.