Feature

Desperately Seeking Moly

Unreliable supplies of feedstock for widely used medical imaging isotope prompt efforts to develop U.S. sources

By Janet Raloff

- More than 2 years ago

Of all the radioactive isotopes used in medical diagnostics, none plays a more pivotal role than technetium-99m. Each weekday, hospitals and clinics around the world use it to perform about 60,000 diagnostic procedures. Used in about 80 percent of nuclear imaging tests, the isotope is one of modern medicine’s major tools for detecting, evaluating and treating cancers, heart disease and other serious illnesses.