Alpha cyclotron production studies of the alpha emitter 211At/211gPo for high-LET metabolic radiotherapy

A series of high specific activity accelerator-produced radionuclides in no-carrier-added (NCA) form, for uses in metabolic radiotherapy and for PET, has been investigated and produced at JRC-Ispra Cyclotron Lab. Here, the authors present the NCA 211At/211gPo (LET = 130 eV.nm-1, t1/2 = 7.214 h), produced by the 209Bi(α,2n) reaction, with internal spike of gamma emitter 210At (e.g., negligible amt. of 210Po as radiotoxic long-lived impurity), for high-LET targeted radiotherapy and immunoradiotherapy. A selective radiochem. sepn., based on liq./liq. extn., of At radionuclides from Bi target and Po impurities has been developed. High resoln. gamma, x- and alpha spectrometric techniques have been adopted for quality controls of different radiochem. fractions.