Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 651475, 14 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/651475
Research Article

Atomic Radiations in the Decay of Medical Radioisotopes: A Physics Perspective

B. Q. Lee, T. Kibédi, A. E. Stuchbery, and K. A. Robertson

Department of Nuclear Physics, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

Received 21 March 2012; Revised 17 May 2012; Accepted 17 May 2012

Academic Editor: Eva Bezak

Copyright © 2012 B. Q. Lee et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Auger electrons emitted in nuclear decay offer a unique tool to treat cancer cells at the scale of a DNA molecule. Over the last forty years many aspects of this promising research goal have been explored, however it is still not in the phase of serious clinical trials. In this paper, we review the physical processes of Auger emission in nuclear decay and present a new model being developed to evaluate the energy spectrum of Auger electrons, and hence overcome the limitations of existing computations.