Medicine and Health
Warning: this page contains themes and discussions about cancer.
When we think about things we see and hear in TV medical programmes, radioactivity probably isn’t the first thing to pop into our heads. However, radionuclides have many different uses within hospitals, such as for disease diagnosis, targeted therapies and pain relief. These have revolutionised healthcare and made some historically fatal illnesses, including cancers, now treatable and curable. Explore the activities below to learn more about these atomic heroes!
Neutron number ordering game
Look at the cards and order them in smallest to largest number of neutrons.
Half-life ordering game
Read through each of the cards and place them in order of shortest to longest half-life.
Radionuclide application game
Have a go at matching the isotopes below with the part of the body that they treat.
Radionuclide description game:
Think you know your radionuclides? Test your knowledge by matching each isotope with its correct description.
Scenario game:
Read through the scenarios below and pick the radionuclide that is best suited for the job.
Scenario 1: Diagnostic techniques in nuclear medicine use radiopharmaceuticals (or radiotracers) which emit particles or rays from within the body. These tracers are generally short-lived isotopes, and their emissions are detected by an imaging device. A patient needs to have the gas exchange in their lungs investigated, which radionuclide would you use for these investigations and why?
Scenario 2: Nuclear medicine is also used for therapeutic purposes. Which radionuclide would you use to treat a cancerous tumour affecting the thyroid gland?
Scenario 3: With any therapeutic procedure, the aim is to confine the radiation to well-defined target volumes of the patient. There are several radionuclides that are used for treating bone cancer. Which radionuclides would you use to target cancerous growths in the bone and why?
