Therapeutic Radionuclides Decay with Particle Emission for Therapeutic Applications

The use of radiation for treatment of cancer and for therapy of many other chronic conditions has a long history and involves the use of radiation from X-ray and gamma photon-generating devices, as well as particle-generating devices which provide protons and neutrons. In addition, reusable sealed sources are used in radiation oncology for brachytherapy, and unsealed radioactive sources (radiopharmaceuticals) are used for patient administration in nuclear medicine. The use of unsealed sources for therapy has traditionally focused primarily on the use of beta-particle (β−)-emitting radioisotopes, because of their availability. More recently, alpha-emitting (α) radioisotopes have been introduced for biological research and clinical applications, and the potential use of Auger-emitting radioisotopes continues to be discussed. This chapter focuses on a general overview of radioisotopes which are used as unsealed sources and provides an overview of the types of particle emissions which are used in therapeutic applications and their general characteristics and general production requirements.