# Scandium-47

Source: https://nuclide.cc/isotopes/sc-47/  
Nuclide record `sc-47` (Isotope). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from Nuclide (nuclide.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A radioactive metal being developed to pair with imaging twins made of the same element, scandium-43 or scandium-44. Because it is the same chemical element used for both the scan and the treatment, the tracer should behave identically in both roles.

## Summary

Scandium-47 decays by beta-minus emission with a half-life of about 3.35 days to stable titanium-47, releasing beta particles with a mean energy around 162 keV (maxima cited between about 440-600 keV depending on the source) and an imageable 159 keV gamma (about 68% abundance), giving a mean tissue range broadly comparable to lutetium-177.

Its intended theranostic partners are the positron emitters scandium-43 (half-life 3.89 hours) and scandium-44 (half-life about 4.04 hours), which would let the same chelator-conjugated ligand be imaged by PET and then dosed with 47Sc using identical chemistry -- an isotopic match analogous to the 64Cu/67Cu copper pair, though scandium's shorter-lived PET isotopes make routine same-day imaging-then-therapy workflows more logistically demanding.

47Sc can be produced in a reactor either directly by fast-neutron irradiation of enriched titanium-47, 47Ti(n,p)47Sc, or indirectly via thermal-neutron capture on enriched calcium-46 to form calcium-47 (half-life 4.54 days), which beta-decays to 47Sc and can also serve as a 47Ca/47Sc generator; it can also be made in a cyclotron by proton irradiation of titanium-48, 48Ti(p,2n)47Sc, though this route has shown lower radionuclidic purity due to co-produced scandium-46 and -48. Production remains at research-reactor and pilot scale (for example, the PRISMAP network's ILL, SCK CEN and NCBJ reactors), and 47Sc-labelled radiopharmaceuticals are in early preclinical and clinical development, not yet FDA- or EMA-approved.

## Fields

- Kind: Isotope
- Status: preclinical
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Also known as: 47Sc; Sc-47
- Tags: therapy; beta emitter; gamma emitter; research-only; theranostic pair

## Sources

- Production of scandium radionuclides for theranostic applications (EJNMMI Radiopharm Chem, 2021): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41181-021-00131-2
- 47Sc as useful beta-minus-emitter for the radiotheragnostic paradigm (PMC, 2017): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5824697/
- Production and purification of 43Sc and 47Sc from enriched titanium targets (Sci Rep, 2023): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10730517/
- PRISMAP: 47Sc radionuclide portfolio page: https://www.prismap.eu/radionuclides/portfolio/47Sc/

## Connected records

- isotopes: [Lutetium-177](https://nuclide.cc/isotopes/lu-177/)
- technologies: [Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT)](https://nuclide.cc/technologies/prrt/)

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