Jenna Crowe
Staff Writer
A partnership between ISU and Australian pharmaceutical company Clarity could provide a new, more effective form of cancer treatment.
“We’re finding isotopes with the potential for medical use,” Jon Stoner, the director of technical operations at the Idaho Accelerator Center, said.
Since 2010, the IAC has been working on a 30-year suspicion that copper would be good for cancer treatment, specifically the isotope Cu-67. An isotope is a form of an element that has the same number of protons, which are positive particles, but a different number of neutrons, which are neutral particles. The change in the number of neutrons changes the way the elements reacts with other elements.
There are many reasons why people began to suspect Cu-67 as a possible cancer treatment, most of which center around the isotope’s decay.
This form of copper has a half-life of two and a half days. Within two-and-a-half days, half of a given amount decays. Another two-and-a-half days pass and half of that amount will decay, this cycle continues until the entire element has diminished.
During this cycle of decay, Cu-67 releases beta particles which have the ability to kill cancer cells.
“It also gives off gamma rays that can be caught on camera,” Stoner said.
Copper, in any form, is well-tolerated by the human body since copper naturally exists in the body.
With the right combination of Cu-67 and cancer medicine, cancers such as Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and colorectal cancer may be treated much faster. Other types of cancer this could be effective against are neuroblastoma, which is a childhood cancer, and neuroendocrine tumors, which exist in the digestive tract.
“We were also contacted by a researcher that wants to study breast cancer,” Stoner said.
Cu-67 is a man-made isotope, which is where the IAC comes into play.
The IAC has been working with Cu-67 since 2010 and in 2014 scientists were able to develop it for transport. Once samples are ready for transport, the IAC works with International Isotopes based out of Idaho Falls.
“Our process is less expensive and very pure,” Stoner said. “That’s what attracted Clarity.”
In 2015, Clarity contacted the IAC and showed interest in the Cu-67 sample. Clarity’s CEO visited the IAC center in February of this year, and shipments of Cu-67 directly to Clarity began this fall.
Stoner explains that the key to the process is how they convert zinc into copper.
“We built an accelerator for production of isotopes,” Stoner said. “We create high energy photons to convert elements.”
From start to finish, the whole process takes 24 hours. This fast process ensures that companies such as Clarity are able to receive the product before Cu-67’s half-life can have too severe of an effect on the product.
The IAC has received many grants for this project over the years. The biggest grant came from the State of Idaho and was a little over $1.5 million.
The biggest challenge at this point is finding the right combination of targeting agents, such as proteins, to pair with Cu-67 – this is where Clarity comes into play.
Clarity is in the forefront of this process, although Stoner explains that it could still be a long time before this product hits the market.
“Animal trials are ongoing and human trials will start in a year,” Stoner said.
