Radium-223  (223Ra, Ra-223) is an isotope of radium with an 11.4-day half-life. It was discovered in 1905 by T. Godlewski, a Polish chemist from Kraków, and was historically known as actinium X (AcX). Radium-223 dichloride is an alpha particle-emitting radiotherapy drug that mimics calcium and forms complexes with hydroxyapatite at areas of increased bone turnover. The principal use of radium-223, as a radiopharmaceutical to treat metastatic cancers in bone, takes advantage of its chemical similarity to calcium, and the short range of the alpha radiation it emits. Origin and preparation
Although radium-223 is naturally formed in trace amounts by the decay of uranium-235, it is generally made artificially, by exposing natural radium-226 to neutrons to produce radium-227, which decays with a 42-minute half-life to actinium-227. Actinium-227 (half-life 21.8 years) in turn decays via thorium-227 (half-life 18.7 days) to radium-223. This decay path makes it convenient to prepare radium-223 by "milking" it from an actinium-227 containing generator or "cow", similar to the moly cows widely used to prepare the medically important isotope technetium-99m.223Ra itself decays to 219Rn (half-life 3.96 s), a short-lived gaseous radon isotope, by emitting an alpha particle of 5.979 MeV.
223Ra received priority review as a treatment for an unmet medical need, based on its ability to extend overall survival as shown its Phase III trial.This study also led to approval in the European Union on 19 September 2013 The European Medicines Agency subsequently recommended restricting its use to patients who have had two previous treatments for metastatic prostate cancer or who cannot receive other treatments. The medicine must also not be used with abiraterone acetate, prednisone or prednisolone and its use is not recommended in patients with a low number of osteoblastic bone metastases.223Ra also showed promising preliminary results in a phase IIa trial enrolling 23 women with bone metastases resulting from breast cancer that no longer responds to endocrine therapy. 223Ra treatment reduced the levels of bone alkaline phosphatase (bALP) and urine N-telopeptide (uNTX), key markers of bone turnover associated with bone metastases in breast cancer, diminished bone pain slightly though consistently, and was well tolerated. Another single-arm, open-label Phase II trial reported possible efficacy of 223Ra combined with endocrine therapy in hormone-receptor-positive, bone-dominant breast cancer metastasis. Side effects
The most common side effects reported during clinical trials in men receiving 223Ra were nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and swelling of the leg, ankle or foot. The most common abnormalities detected during blood testing were anemia, lymphocytopenia, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia and neutropenia.