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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.
Max Tabak, Denise Hinkel, Stefano Atzeni, E. Michael Campbell, Kazuo Tanaka
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 3 | April 2006 | Pages 254-277
Technical Paper | Fast Ignition | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST49-3-254
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fast ignition is an approach to inertial fusion in which precompressed fuel is ignited with an external heat source. This arrangement can, in principle, lead to higher gains than conventional ignition produced by stagnation of convergent flows. In addition, because ignition is separate from the implosion in fast ignition, hydrodynamic mix has less opportunity to quench ignition than in the conventional process. This paper introduces some of the basic ideas of fast ignition: ignition requirements, gain curves based on simple energetic models, and integrated gain models including hohlraum and implosion physics. Because possible gains in this approach are so large, it is possible to examine the use of fuels with small tritium fractions, the so-called "advanced fuels." In addition, the historical background of this field is discussed.
