Cancer Treatment Technology

NorthStar Nuclear Medicine, Inc. and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have signed two agreements on a major new technology to produce the extremely valuable medical isotope, actinium-225, for use in cancer research and treatment. The agreements will lead to expansion of the amount of medical isotope available for a new cancer radiation treatment that offers many advantages over traditional radiation treatment.

This patented invention --the Medical Actinium for Therapeutic Treatment (called MATT)--has been nominated for R&D Magazine's 2006 top 100 technologies. MATT is a novel process that separates actinium-225 from unused nuclear fuel. This technology is expected to increase the world production of the medical isotope, enabling important clinical cancer treatment trials to proceed. Actinium-225 can be used effectively in alpha-immunotherapy treatments, which combine an alpha particle-emitting radionuclide that is carried by a targeting agent such as monoclonal antibodies. The targeting agent seeks out and selectively attaches to cancer cells. The radioisotope then kills the targeted cancer cells, while minimizing collateral damage to surrounding normal cells. This treatment regimen offers many key advantages over external radiation exposure and chemotherapy.

A separations process recovers Actinium-225 from unused nuclear fuel that can increase the world production of the medical isotope, for cancer research and treatment.

The agreements between INL and NorthStar include a license for the company to use the MATT technology, and a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) supporting further development of the technology. Under the CRADA, NorthStar provides INL funding to develop MATT during the initial planning stage for designing and building a pilot plant to recover the medical isotope.

The Department of Energy is currently providing actinium-225 to researchers from its Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. If INL and NorthStar are successful in further developing their technology, it would supplement this limited supply. In inventing this technology, INL researchers took advantage of the fact the INL has significant sources of actinium-225 in its 14 metric tons of 30-year-old unused nuclear fuel. This fuel was originally created to use in a breeder reactor, a research program that was discontinued in the early 1970s.