Targeted Alpha Therapy Symposium

Production and Chemical Separation of No Carrier Added (nca) Lutetium-177.

Not scheduled

15m

Fairmont Château Laurier Hotel

Speaker

Victor Bautista (Texas A&M)

Description

Lutetium-177 dotatate gained FDA approval for use in certain neuroendocrine tumors, opening the door for research looking at other avenues of radiopharmaceutical use. With a half-life of 6.647 days and average \beta - particle range in soft tissue of ~670 μm, ${}^{177}Lu$ has promise for other therapy applications. Another benefit of ${}^{177}Lu$ is that it produces low energy gammas (113 keV, 208 keV), suitable for imaging purposes, allowing biodistribution and excretion kinetics to be monitored. Lutetium-177 can be produced as carrier added (ca) and no carrier added (nca) from enriched ${}^{177}Lu$ or ${}^{176}Yb$, respectively by two production routes: ${}^{176}Lu$(n,𝛾)${}^{177}Lu$, ${}^{176}Yb$(n,𝛾)${}^{177}Yb$→β-${}^{177}Lu$. The later requires separation of Lu from the Yb target following irradiation. The ORNL High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) with a max thermal neutron flux of 2.1x1015 n•cm-2 •s-1 (85 MW) is ideally suited to produce high specific activity ${}^{177}Lu$. Separating nca ${}^{177}Lu$ is a complex process because it requires separating micro amounts of ${}^{177}Lu$ from macro amounts of ${}^{176}Yb$ and they are both part of the lanthanide series. The best method of separation will be tested from previous work to come up with a method that will cut down on waste, time, and improve the overall radio-purity of ${}^{177}Lu$.