Kansas City Hospitals Bring Cancer 'Heat-Seeking Missile' to Kids

When John Corbin was told he had five years to live with Stage 4 prostate cancer, he never imagined he'd still be here a decade later, tending his garden and cooking meals. He calls the treatment that saved him "super juice."

That treatment is theranostics, and it's about to become far more accessible in Kansas City. The University of Kansas Health System, KU Medical Center, and Children's Mercy are partnering with Michigan-based BAMF Health to create an integrated platform that brings production, imaging, and clinical trials all under one roof.

Think of theranostics as a heat-seeking missile for disease. It combines diagnostics and therapy to deliver radiation directly to diseased cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue. Patients get faster diagnoses and more precise treatment with fewer devastating side effects.

The game changer? Children's Mercy will be among the first hospitals nationwide to offer this therapy to kids. "This is going to bring emerging therapies for patients that otherwise might not have that kind of help," said Children's Mercy President Alejandro Quiroga at this week's press conference.

Right now, theranostics primarily treats cancer and certain thyroid conditions in adults. But the new platform will focus on expanding access to treatments for Parkinson's disease, cardiovascular disease, endometriosis, Alzheimer's, and pain management through local clinical trials.

For prostate cancer patients like Corbin, the treatment has already proven transformative. "We can catch cancer earlier, know where and exactly what it is, and we can treat those kinds of metastatic disease in the most efficient way," said BAMF Health CEO Anthony Chang.

The Ripple Effect: Early detection matters tremendously for diseases like Alzheimer's, where only half of patients currently receive a diagnosis. New treatments can slow disease progression, but they only work in the earliest stages. This partnership creates the infrastructure Kansas City needs to keep pace with rapidly evolving medical science, bringing hope to families facing conditions that once felt hopeless.

Some parts of the platform will launch within months, while others will take a year or two. But the vision is clear: Kansas City is positioning itself as a hub for cutting-edge research and life-saving treatments that could give countless patients their own "extra credit" in life.