Project to turn nuclear waste into new cancer treatments
The United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL) and Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) have received funding to drive the development of new cancer treatments through precision nuclear medicine.
The funding from UKRI allows UKNNL, which collaborates with researchers to enable access to radionuclides, and MDC, a national life sciences service, to finalise the case to scale up the development of precision nuclear medicines from the UK’s spent nuclear material.
Precision nuclear medicine can be used to create individualised treatment plans for patients and improve outcomes for them. Targeted Alpha Therapy is an emerging approach to cancer treatment that uses radioactive isotopes to destroy cancer cells while minimising damage to healthy tissue.
Generating interest in the field is Lead-212, which can be extracted from reprocessed uranium. As it decays, with a half-life of approximately 11 hours, scientists can use its emissions to target and destroy cancer cells.
Other countries are researching and developing these treatments, but the UK does not yet have a sustainable pipeline of radiopharmaceuticals to secure access for UK patients.
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