Nuclear research is as important as ever for Europeans’ health

Nuclear research is not just about energy production: For 60 years, EU nuclear research has benefited our societies in many ways, including in healthcare. Iliana Ivanova explains how it is helping us to treat prostate cancer.

Iliana Ivanova is the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.

Civil nuclear research has always been one of the cornerstones of European collaboration. With the Treaties of Rome of 1957, the founding Member States agreed to set up the European Atomic Energy Community, or Euratom.

The aim then, as now, was to promote research, establish safety standards and ensure progress in the peaceful use of nuclear materials.

In just a few years, related research facilities were established in Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, as part of the nascent Joint Research Centre (JRC). Their nuclear research activity started 60 years ago and remains as important to the EU as it was at the outset.

To me, this important anniversary is an opportunity to highlight how the work started under the Euratom programme has evolved, and why it is still relevant in our society today.

It was established to respond to needs that we are still familiar with, 60 years later: keeping up with an increasingly energy-hungry economy and doing so without depending entirely on non-EU countries.

Today, nuclear contributes to the green energy transition in Europe under several frameworks, including the proposed Net-Zero Industry Act. Fostering advanced technologies, for example, small modular reactors, can play an important role in decarbonising heavy industry and other hard-to-abate sectors.

While energy production has historically been the most prominent research area for civil nuclear use, it is far from the only one. Over its 60 years of nuclear research, the JRC has studied applications in a wide range of domains, including a long-term programme on medical uses.

Thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, it was often able to go from discovery to practical application, achieving concrete results that benefit all of us. 

Fighting cancer, protecting citizens

The development of a new therapy to treat prostate cancer is an excellent example of this. Prostate cancer is the second most frequent male malignancy worldwide, accounting for about 4% of all deaths caused by cancer in men.

Mortality for this type of cancer is relatively low if the disease is detected early. However, the lack of regular screening means that patients (especially in low- and middle-income tier) are often diagnosed when the cancer has already reached a metastatic stage.

At that point, palliative care is often the only option and a considerable number of patients refuse standard treatments for fear of their side effects.

To address this the JRC, in collaboration with research partners, has developed targeted alpha therapy, a novel approach for treating various cancer types. Being a targeted therapy means that it can interact with specific molecules found in cancer cells while being less likely to interfere with healthy cells.

The high amount of energy that alpha particles deposit in the cancerous tissue and in metastases means the therapy can even destroy cells that proved resistant to other treatments like chemotherapy drugs. This drastically reduces the side effects and the impact on healthy tissues.

Researchers at the JRC, together with the University Hospital of Heidelberg, developed and synthesised a radioactive drug called Actinium-225-PSMA617, that proved to be particularly effective in targeted alpha therapy to fight prostate cancer.

Several clinical studies were launched and soon extended to other hospitals in Europe and beyond. Today, this clinical approach pioneered by the JRC is even being tested in South Africa, at the Steve Biko Hospital in Pretoria, with ground-breaking results in several phases of the tumour treatment.

Targeted alpha therapy with Actinium-225-PSMA617 has provided a low-side-effect treatment option, which has extended the life and/or achieved long-term remission in hundreds of patients even at this early stage of development.

Researchers think that they can develop other radioactive compounds capable of targeting specific types of cancer, just like they did with Actinium-225-PSMA617 and prostate cancer.

The work continues with breast cancer, the second most common cancer in women: JRC scientists are currently focusing their efforts on finding the right compound to target it. This is another crucial step in implementing Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan launched by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Radionuclides: an important tool for personalised medicine

Nuclear research is the basis for this exciting development towards personalised and precision medicine. Radionuclides bring amazing advantages, allowing us to see the cancer tissue (through imaging) and then to target it (through therapy) – a new approach called theranostics for its unique ability to combine diagnostics and therapy.

But there is still a lot of work to do before this approach can be used widely.

Producing the necessary amount of radionuclides like Actinium-225-PSMA617 will be the biggest challenge. As more and more clinical institutes worldwide recognise the potential of targeted alpha therapy, the demand for these radioactive compounds is expected to increase significantly.

Meeting this demand is key to making medical radionuclide technologies accessible to all patients. Increasing the number of facilities able to produce these radioisotopes and making them available on a larger scale is crucial. 

In addition, JRC scientists are now researching new techniques to produce these life-saving compounds more easily, and have already developed an alternative production method that will enable more patients to access medical procedures using different radionuclides. 

A continued priority

When the Euratom journey began, achievements like these were unimaginable. Studying the building blocks of matter, it turns out, can yield extraordinary results. Nuclear research continues to push the boundaries of what we consider possible, in medicine and beyond: this is why it must remain a scientific priority for the European Union.

The Joint Research Centre’s cutting-edge nuclear expertise and unique research infrastructures are valuable assets to explore the frontiers of nuclear science applications, for the benefit of all Europeans.