Radioisotopes for medicine

As medicinal products, radiopharmaceuticals are subject to the same scrutiny applied to all medicines admitted to the market. The only difference are atoms of some radioactive isotope permanently integrated with molecules of the medicine active substance. Technologies to produce radioactive isotopes either inside nuclear reactors or using some particle accelerators have been developed so much that the range of radio nuclides available for medical purposes has greatly expanded. Therefore the task to select some radioactive nuclide optimal in any given diagnostic or therapeutic application (in the sense of emitted radiation and its interaction with the matter) is more and more easy to accomplish. However, some biological mechanism that would safely transport that nuclide to specific body area/tissue/organ is also needed. Present day knowledge on cell/sub-cell level processes greatly helps to select potential molecular targets and some ligands that bind with them. The ligands may play the role of carriers (called also “vectors”) for radioactive nuclides.

Recent years witnessed a considerable progress in radioactive isotope-based medical diagnostics and therapy all over the world, including Poland. Examples include new markers for receptor diagnostics in the SPECT/PET techniques, and application of alpha or beta emitters for internal radiotherapy.

Venue: Świerk Science & Technology Park

NCBJ bus leaves to Świerk at 10.15 am from entrance gate to the Hoża 69 premises in Warsaw.

Professor Ludwik Dobrzyński