Medical isotopes: accelerator-based solutions to meet Europe’s future needs

The Cockcroft Institute recently co-hosted, in conjunction with CERN, a workshop on the “Accelerator-driven Production of Medical Isotopes” on the 8th and 9th of December 2011. This unique event brought together some 60 attendees including world–leading scientists and engineers, specialist clinicians and key global technology suppliers in an open forum to discuss some of the challenges faced in meeting Europe’s future isotope supply needs.
Medical isotopes are used both directly in oncology treatment and as image tracers in two widely adopted scanning techniques; positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Worldwide, this requires many millions of individual radionuclide doses to be prepared annually. In 2008, a 60% reduction in the availability of the commonly used Technetium-99m, brought about by unplanned stoppages at two of the five ageing nuclear reactors which meet the global demand, lead to the immediate cancellation of many thousands of treatments. In doing so it highlighted the fragility of the supply chain and the potential consequences for Europe’s ageing population.
The workshop studied a number of potential accelerator-driven solutions to the issue, from cyclotrons through to more radical photo-fission methods. The breadth of expertise present also highlighted a wealth of related difficulties and opportunities; from alternative isotope usage and imaging techniques, through refinement of the accompanying preparation chemistry and generator production, to insights into the relative merits of centralised large-scale production versus at-point-of-use solutions. The varied programme stimulated a great deal of lively and insightful debate throughout the two days.
Dewi Lewis (CERN), chairman of the scientific programme committee, will now take the outputs from the meeting to the Research Councils and decision making bodies further afield, whilst the workshop will also help identify opportunities and inform future strategy for the Cockcroft Institute in this exciting area of medical science.

“Accelerator-driven Production of Medical Isotopes” workshop group