Accelerator Based Production of $^{225}$Ac for Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Targeted Alpha Therapy potentially offers a more specific action in killing tumor cells and less damage to neighbouring normal cells compared to $\beta$-emitters. $^{225}$Ac along with three other $\alpha$-emitting daughter nuclei $^{221}$Fr, $^{217}$At and $^{213}$Po have significant potency for clinical use. Monte carlo simulation has been carried out using MONC code for production routes of $^{225}$Ac for its possible generation using proton accelerators with Thorium-232 and Radium-226 targets. All the calculations has been carried out using global model parameters without adjusting for individual target. The study reveals that proton beam of 20-30MeV energy with 5$\mu$A current on radium-226 target can give rise to 1Ci of $^{225}$Ac activity in a week of irradiation. Thorium irradiation at low proton energy produces smaller $^{225}$Ac activity but one can benefit from high current, stable proton accelerators. Proton energy of 100MeV or above with hundreds of $\mu$A current can produce reasonable $^{225}$Ac activity for practical use. However, the contamination of other co-produced radio-isotopes is much less at low proton energy hence low energy high current proton accelerators are also viable alternative to generate Actinium-225 radio isotope.