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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.
B. Schweer
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 404-411
Technical Paper | Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics - Diagnostics | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1140
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Plasma can be studied and characterised by the analysis of its radiation. Signals obtained by passive spectroscopy contain much information about temperature, density and flux of the main species and impurities. The interpretation of measured line intensities requires the knowledge of atomic physics describing the specific radiation from the plasma. Tomographic methods are applied but they need symmetries for the calculation of local parameters. Additionally in magnetic confined plasmas the interpretation might be more difficult due to the Zeeman splitting.
