Astatine

Astatine (At) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-25 · the last 10 years

Astatine’s research intensity is currently at about 40% of its all-time peak, a level that has risen steadily over the last decade despite the element’s historical high occurring in 1961.

Research intensity ran from about 25% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 40% in 2026 — a steady climb, and the all-time peak (1961) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements rose. Among the 118 elements, astatine has one of the smaller research literatures of any element.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 91 in 2016 to about 278 in 2025 (3.05x). That is faster than the literature as a whole grew over the same years, so the element gained ground in the wider body of research.

The dominant research community is Astatine-211 Targeted Alpha Therapy in Oncology. These papers focus on astatine-211 as an alpha-emitting radionuclide for targeted cancer treatment, including production, stability, and specific applications in multiple myeloma. Within this field, astatine is a minor presence in a much larger community—about 1% of its papers involve astatine—yet it accounts for about 86% of astatine’s own recent research. This share has remained steady over the last two five-year periods. Key work includes a 2021 overview of promising radionuclides for targeted alpha therapy, cited over 190 times, and a 2025 review on recent advances in theranostics and oncology PET, cited about 31 times.

A second community, Superheavy Nuclei, Heavy-Ion Collisions, and Nuclear Structure, involves work on uncovering chemical homology and looking at astatine in the context of elements close to superheavy nuclei. Astatine is a minor presence here as well, with under 1% of the community’s papers involving the element, but it represents about 7% of astatine’s recent research. This share has also been steady. Notable papers include a 2018 study on charge radii and electromagnetic moments of astatine isotopes, cited about 51 times, and a 2023 observation of a volatile astatine hydroxide species, cited about 9 times.

A third, much smaller community, Thyroid Cancer Management, Iodine Nutrition, and Autoimmune Thyroid Disease, holds a negligible share of astatine’s research, with no material change in its standing.

Overall, the composition of astatine’s research has remained stable, with the targeted alpha therapy community holding the vast majority of attention and the nuclear structure community maintaining a small but consistent presence.

For a deeper look at the element’s current standing, see the Last 12 Months and Executive Brief reports.