24 Feb (NucNet): Scientists in Canada have announced the successful production of the key medical isotope technetium-99m (Tc-99m) on existing cyclotrons – compact particle accelerators – in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia.
A team of scientists led by TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, said the development allows hospitals and clinics with existing cyclotrons to make the isotope, traditionally only available from nuclear reactors.
Each year, tens of millions of medical procedures are conducted around the world with Tc-99m, an isotope used in radiopharmaceuticals for imaging disease in the heart, bones, and elsewhere in the body.
TRIUMF said two ageing nuclear reactors – at Chalk River in Canada and Petten in the Netherlands – produce about three quarters of the global supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), which is used to produce Tc-99m. In the past few years, both reactors have suffered maintenance and repair outages, threatening the global supply of medical isotopes.
Tom Ruth, senior scientist at TRIUMF and the BC Cancer Agency and principal investigator for the team said: “One of these cyclotrons can supply a metro area such as Vancouver and there are more than a dozen of these cyclotrons in hospitals across Canada.
“What we've shown is that a decentralised model for producing technetium is now possible. We are in discussions with several industrial partners and regional health authorities about how to start implementing this vision. The science and the technology are essentially ready.”
Last month the Dutch government gave the green light for a new research reactor to be built at Petten to replace the existing unit, which has been in operation since 1961 and is reaching the end of its economic life.
According to TRIUMF, the core of the technology includes preparing solid targets of molybdenum-100 (Mo-100) and placing them in an automated system for irradiation with the cyclotron. Mo-100 is a naturally occurring radioactive isotope of molybdenum and has a half-life of about 10 trillion years.
More details online:
www.triumf.ca/research-highlights/experimental-result/technetium-99m-made-multiple-cyclotrons
