 Commercially , the radioactive isotope bismuth @-@ 213 can be produced by bombarding radium with bremsstrahlung photons from a linear particle accelerator . In 1997 , an antibody conjugate with bismuth @-@ 213 , which has a 45 @-@ minute half @-@ life and decays with the emission of an alpha particle , was used to treat patients with leukemia . This isotope has also been tried in cancer treatment , for example , in the targeted alpha therapy ( TAT ) program . 
