In an interview about radium 223 with Medscape Medical News, Dr. Vapiwala pointed out that radium-223 is the first alpha-emitter to reach the market, and described it as a “breakthrough for radiopharmaceuticals” and “another breakthrough for prostate cancer,” as it joins several other agents that have recently been approved for this disease.
She characterized the treatment, Radium-223 has having an “elegant way of working. She explained that its similarity to calcium means that it naturally travels to the bone and is easily absorbed. After the radium has been absorbed by the bone it releases short-range high-energy alpha particles that are toxic and cause double-stranded DNA breaks.
The elegance comes in not only by the targeting method, but also because the alpha particles effect any area far from where they are absorbed limiting the damage to other tissue.
The half-life of radium-223 is short (roughly 11 days), so the radioactivity decays rapidly meaning there are no special precautions needed by the man
Because of the fast half-life of the radium, t