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OPAL LAUNCH APRIL 2007
FACT
SHEET
ANSTO Radiopharmaceuticals
and Industrials (ARI)
ANSTO Radiopharmaceuticals and Industrials
(ARI) produces radiopharmaceuticals and
radiochemicals to help in the diagnosis and
treatment of a range of serious illnesses.
Based in NSW, ARI supplies approximately 200
public and private nuclear medicine centres in
Australia as well as 10 centres
in New Zealand. It also provides
radiopharmaceuticals to 12
countries in Asia. ARI has
approximately 110 employees
and annual revenue in excess of
$20 million.
The isotopes to be
produced in the OPAL
reactor will be used in
more than 80% of
diagnostic nuclear
medicine procedures.
ARI produces radiochemicals and
radiopharmaceuticals at ANSTO’s
Lucas Heights base and at the
National Medical Cyclotron
(30MeV) at Camperdown. OPAL, Australia’s
new $400 million world-class research nuclear
reactor, will enhance ARI’s ability to provide
high-quality radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear
medicine.
The isotopes to be produced in the OPAL
reactor will be used in more than 80% of
diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures (about
470 000 procedures) in Australia every year.
Cyclotron-produced radioisotopes account for
about 96 000 procedures. All in all, over half a
million Australian patients benefit annually
from ANSTO-produced radiopharmaceuticals.
A principal application of radiopharmaceuticals
is to enable us to ‘see’ diseased or inflamed
cells inside the body. This is called ‘imaging’.
The appropriate radiopharmaceutical has to be
selected to suit the bodily organ or
physiological process to be imaged. For
example, thallium-201 is used for cardiac
imaging and gallium-67 for tumour and
infection imaging.
Iodine-123 is also widely used for imaging and
diagnosis of a number of diseases, especially
thyroid disorders. Produced at the National
Medical Cyclotron, iodine-123 is an ideal agent
as it has a half-life of just 13.2 hours and
provides only a low radiation dose, so it can be
safely injected into patients in large quantities.
Iodine-123 emits gamma radiation and is used
in two radiopharmaceutical substances:
sodium iodine-123 and labeled MIBG (metaiodobenzylguanidine).
Sodium iodine-123 is used to monitor the
functioning of the thyroid gland. The thyroid
gland naturally takes up iodine from the diet to
make thyroid hormones. Every cell in the body
depends upon thyroid hormones to regulate
metabolism. In order to image the thyroid,
patients undergoing the nuclear medicine
procedure take sodium iodine-123 capsules
orally, which are absorbed within 1-2 hours.
The iodine-123 is taken up by the thyroid gland
where it emits small amounts of radiation that
are detected by a gamma camera during a
scan. This enables the medical specialist to
determine how the thyroid is functioning.
Iodine-123 can also be attached to the drug
MIBG (meta-iodobenzylguanidine) to diagnose
neuroblastoma, one of the most common
forms of solid malignant cancerous tumours
found in children. Neuroblastoma is a cancer
that usually originates in the adrenal gland. In
both forms, iodine-123 can be used to
diagnose secondary cancers that have
originated in the thyroid or adrenal glands,
which are often found in bones, the lungs,
ANSTO Radiopharmaceuticals
and Industrials
Right, Gentech generators are an
ANSTO product which produce
technetium-99m from
molybdenum-99. Technetium99m is the most commonly used
nuclear medicine, used in more
than 70% of nuclear medicine
procedures worldwide.
Far right, radiopharmaceuticals
for nuclear medicine are
produced in hot cells attached
to OPAL.
chest or abdomen. Where the secondary
disease sites consist of ‘thyroid-like cells’,
they quickly take up iodine, providing a very
sensitive indicator of cancer spread.
Overall, nuclear imaging results provide
valuable functional information, and this can
be correlated with structural changes evident
through other imaging techniques such as
Computerised Tomography (CT). Nuclear
imaging is integral to cancer diagnosis and is
contributing to the recent decline in mortality
from cancer.
The other important applications of
radiopharmaceuticals are in therapy and in
palliative care. ARI supplies the Australian
company Sirtex Medical with yttrium-90
microspheres, which are used to treat liver
cancer. In cases where it is not possible to
surgically remove liver tumours, SIR-spheres
can be used to deliver targeted, internal
radiation therapy directly to the tumour. This
technique uses millions of tiny polymer
(plastic) beads or microspheres which contain
yttrium-90.
ARI also produces Quadramet (samarium-153)
for alleviating pain from breast and prostate
cancers that have spread to the bones. Iodine131 is used to treat thyroid cancers and
iridium-193 is used in internal radiotherapy.
ARI operates Good Manufacturing Practice
(GMP) facilities at both its Lucas Heights and
Camperdown facilities. Lucas Heights is close
to Sydney airport for interstate and
international shipments, and is well situated
near the road transport network for
transporting radioisotopes to the Sydney
metropolitan areas and Canberra.
For further information on ARI, contact:
Daniel Kenny
Marketing Manager Manager, ARI
T +61 2 9717 9010
E [email protected]
A small catheter is guided into the liver and the
microspheres are infused through the catheter.
The microspheres with the radioactive
ytterium-90 are carried by the blood stream
directly to the liver tumours, delivering a dose
of radiation for a period of approximately two
weeks. ‘Sir-spheres’, an Australian innovation, are
used in Australia, Europe and the United States.
Nuclear-based science benefiting all Australians