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Researchers report fastest purification of astatine-211 needed for targeted cancer therapy
Astatine-211 recovery from bismuth metal using a chromatography system. Unlike bismuth, astatine-211 forms chemical bonds with ketones.
In a recent study, Texas A&M University researchers have described a new process to purify astatine-211, a promising radioactive isotope for targeted cancer treatment. Unlike other elaborate purification methods, their technique can extract astatine-211 from bismuth in minutes rather than hours, which can greatly reduce the time between production and delivery to the patient.
“Astatine-211 is currently under evaluation as a cancer therapeutic in clinical trials. But the problem is that the supply chain for this element is very limited because only a few places worldwide can make it,” said Jonathan Burns, research scientist in the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Nuclear Engineering and Science Center. “Texas A&M University is one of a handful of places in the world that can make astatine-211, and we have delineated a rapid astatine-211 separation process that increases the usable quantity of this isotope for research and therapeutic purposes.”
The researchers added that this separation method will bring Texas A&M one step closer to being able to provide astatine-211 for distribution through the Department of Energy’s Isotope Program’s National Isotope Development Center as part of the University Isotope Network.
Details on the chemical reaction to purify astatine-211 are in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.
G. M. D. Hogeweij
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 293-299
Technical Paper | Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics - Transport | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1128
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
By inducing a small electron temperature perturbation in a plasma in steady state one can in principle determine the conductive and convective components of the electron heat flux, and the associated thermal diffusivity and convection velocity. The same can be done for other plasma parameters, like density or ion temperature.In this paper experimental and analysis techniques are briefly reviewed. The fundamental question whether the fluxes are linear functions of the gradients or not is discussed. Experimental results are summarized, including so-called 'non-local' phenomena.