STUDY OF THE TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF PRODUCING At-211 IN CYCLOTRON TYPE PARTICLE ACCELERATORS(Atena Editora)

Abstract

Many chemical elements are irradiated to generate radionuclides and be used as radiopharmaceuticals for both diagnosis and therapy. Astatinium 211, whose production with the CV-28 Cyclotron at the Institute of Nuclear Engineering (IEN) is the subject of study here, has great potential for use in medical therapy. Astatinium 211 can be used satisfactorily in therapy as it has a half-life of 7.2 hours and decays both by electronic capture and by the emission of alpha particles, which makes it particularly suitable for the treatment of oncological diseases, due to the very localized ionization action of this type of charged particle. Astatinium 211, when used in association with iodine 123, makes joint therapy and diagnosis actions viable (Theranostics). In the production of this radioisotope we need to pay attention to its parameters such as the current and irradiation energy of the Bismuth target. Therefore, the entire production process requires studies and care that are essential to its completion. The success of marking specific molecules to be used as radiopharmaceuticals also strongly depends on the physicochemical properties of the irradiation product to be used in its production process, which may even make it unviable. Our country is not yet dealing with the production of this radioisotope, hence the importance of this study in enabling its production and being able to be tested for use in Nuclear Medicine in the treatment of oncological diseases. The present work aims to verify the feasibility of producing this radioactive isotope of astatinium through irradiation of a bismuth target using an alpha particle beam from the Cyclotron CV-28 accelerator. We concluded that through these parameters, we were able to produce the radioisotope with adequate yield and activity.