Ponente
Descripción
Nuclear medicine is moving steadily toward a personalized approach, driven by the development of Targeted Radionuclide Therapy (TRT) and theranostic strategies that allow diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to the molecular profile of each patient’s disease. TRT relies on radiolabeled compounds that accumulate selectively in tumors or other pathological tissue, delivering cytotoxic radiation while sparing healthy organs. Theranostics goes a step further, pairing diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals against the same biological target, which makes it possible to select patients, plan treatment, monitor response and calculate individualized dosimetry.
None of this reaches the clinic without solid preclinical work behind it. Animal and cellular models remain essential to evaluate biodistribution, pharmacokinetics, dosimetry, efficacy and toxicity of new radiopharmaceuticals before they move into clinical trials — this is the bridge between isotope production and the patient, and it’s where safety and efficacy actually get tested.
IFMIF-DONES, although conceived primarily for fusion research, offers a real opportunity here. Its fast neutron source — deuterons of 40 MeV hitting a liquid lithium target — reaches energies of 14–20 MeV, opening up nuclear reactions such as (n,2n) that conventional thermal reactors simply cannot access, since their energy thresholds are too low (for instance, 99Mo production via 100Mo (n,2n) requires around 8.4 MeV). This matters for medicine because these fast-neutron routes give access to isotopes such as 47Sc and 67Cu with the specific activity and isotopic purity needed for safe clinical use.
It’s also possible to divert part of the 40 MeV deuteron beam to produce other promising theranostic isotopes, like 165Er or 177Lu. This accelerator-based route is particularly relevant for reaching the high specific activity and no-carrier-added purity that efficient radiolabeling demands, so that the radioactive atoms bind to their molecular targets without competing against stable isotopes.
Taken together, IFMIF-DONES could complement existing reactor and cyclotron infrastructure and help reinforce Europe’s capacity to produce radioisotopes, securing supply for advanced imaging and targeted therapies. Access to high-quality isotopes would also benefit preclinical research at centers like CIEMAT, supporting the development of new radiopharmaceuticals and, ultimately, the progress of precision oncology and personalized medicine.