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 $^{177}Lu$.
| Funding Agency | Research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, Isotope Program |
|---|---|
| Email Address | vbautista@tamu.edu |
| Presentation Type | Poster |
Primary author
Victor Bautista
(Texas A&M)
Co-authors
Dr
Ashley Dame
(Oak Ridge National Labratory)
Dr
Roy Copping
(Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
