There are a number of specific characteristics that a radioisotope must have in order to be a good candidate for the treatment of disease.  These include half-life, radiation emission, and chemical properties.

The half-life needs to be long enough to make production and distribution practical but short enough to ensure that the decay and associated radiation emission occurs while the isotope is within the tumor.  The primary radiation emission needs to be a short range particle that will deliver radiation dose to the tumor and not to adjacent healthy tissue.  The radioisotope should also emit some gamma rays to enable the location and dose delivery to be monitored in patients using commonly available imaging equipment present in most hospitals.  The chemistry of the radioisotope should make it possible for it to be delivered to the tumor site, either by natural chemical affinity or through being stably bound to a delivery agent such as an monoclonal antibody or peptide that selectively binds to diseased tissue.

The characterisitics of copper-67 compared with radioisotopes currently used in the targeted radioisotope therapy agents Lutathera, Azedra and Zevalin (lutetium-177/iodine-131/yttrium-90 respectiviely). 

Sartate is a product of Clarity Pharmaceuticals currently in clinical trials.  

Desirable/optimal characteristics are highlighted in green.