Thousands of cancer therapies to be produced using recycled uranium

URANIUM recovered from spent nuclear reactor fuel will be reprocessed to support the manufacture of cancer therapies under a project backed by the UK Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Bicycle Therapeutics, a biotech based in Cambridge, will use a novel process developed by the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL) to harvest the medical isotope lead-212 from recycled uranium. The NDA will provide 400 t of reprocessed uranium to Bicycle over a 15-year period.

Kevin Lee, CEO of Bicycle Therapeutics, said the collaboration marked “a significant milestone” in scaling access to targeted cancer treatments while supporting the UK life sciences sector.

Cancer therapies

Lead-212 is used in radiopharmaceuticals for targeted alpha therapy (TAT), a form of precision medicine that destroys the DNA of cancer cells while minimising damage to surrounding healthy tissue.

However, the supply of alpha-emitting radioisotopes is limited and the industry is looking for alternative production routes.

UKKNL has developed a separation process that can isolate small quantities of lead-212’s parent material from spent nuclear fuel – described as comparable to extracting a drop of water from an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Novel systems

Bicycle Therapeutics will then use a radioisotope generator system to produce lead-212 from the recovered parent material. The generator technology was developed by radiopharmaceutical company Spectrum RX specifically for this application.

Around £20m (US$27m) has been invested by the UK government into research lead-212, led by the UKNNL and Medicines Discovery Catapult.

Julianne Antrobus, CEO of UKNNL, said: “We’re proud to be part of the nuclear and life sciences sectors coming together, forging innovative collaborations that tackle some of healthcare’s most pressing challenges in transformative ways.”