Targeted α-particle and β-particle therapy comparison.
Illustration shows the characteristic features of α and β
particles. α Particles are positively charged particles composed
of two protons and two neutrons, essentially the nucleus of a helium
atom, and β particles are negatively charged particles,
essentially electrons. α Particles have much greater mass, higher
linear energy transfer (LET), travel a much shorter distance in tissue,
and are more cytotoxic than β particles. The illustration
includes specific values of these characteristics for reference but is
not to scale. Created with BioRender.com.