Researchers improve production for short-lived scandium radioisotopes

Scandium radioisotopes have great potential for medical imaging applications such as positron emission tomography (PET) scans. However, their current production methods do not meet the quantity and purity requirements for human use. Specifically, these isotopes require isotopically enriched calcium targets, which are scarce, expensive, and challenging to use in an accelerator. A recent study presents innovative approaches to produce and irradiate accelerator targets for scandium, leading to the production of sufficient amounts of radioactive scandium for multiple diagnostic PET assessments of patients. Moreover, this process achieves a recycling efficiency of over 95% for the calcium target material.

The findings of this study have been published in the journal Frontiers in Chemistry.

The combination of diagnostic and therapeutic drugs, known as “theranostics,” holds great promise for disease management, especially in cancer treatment. Scandium-43 and scandium-44 are particularly promising isotopes for theranostic medicine when paired with therapeutic scandium-47. However, the production of these isotopes requires costly titanium and calcium starting materials, as well as complex irradiation and chemical processing for isolation. As a result, the development and availability of scandium-based treatments have been hindered.

This study introduces sustainable methods that overcome these limitations. The researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison investigated five nuclear reactions that generate scandium-43 and scandium-44 through proton and deuteron irradiation of calcium oxide accelerator targets. The experiments focused on the quantities and purities of the produced isotopes when using commercially available targets enriched in calcium-42, calcium-43, and calcium-44 isotopes. Notably, the highest yields and purities were achieved with irradiation of calcium-44, producing 120 millicuries in an hour with a purity exceeding 99.7%. Additionally, the researchers developed processes for chemical purification of scandium and the recovery of the expensive calcium target materials, ensuring sustainability in a modern hospital setting.

The scandium-43 and scandium-44 radioisotopes generated in this study are pure enough for use as radioactive drugs targeting cancer. In diagnostic medical procedures that utilize PET scanners, these scandium radioisotopes offer superior resolution and quantitative performance compared to the current clinical standard gallium-68, a radiometal isotope.

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