Production of long lived parent radionuclides for generators: 68Ge, 82Sr, 90Sr and 188W

Radionuclide generators represent convenient in-house radionuclide production systems that allow daughter species to be obtained even in the absence of on-site reactor or accelerator facilities. The resurgence in interest in the use of radionuclide generator systems is due to the development of new targeting strategies using specific carrier molecules for the development of both diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. This publication provides information on the production and processing of four important long lived parent radionuclides, 68Ge, 82Sr, 90Sr and 188W, used for the preparation of generators for nuclear medicine applications such as positron emission tomography (PET) or therapy. Germanium-68 is used for the 68Ge/68Ga generator system, which provides no-carrier-added 68Ga for use in PET imaging. Gallium-68 labelled tumour specific peptides are now in routine use for PET imaging of certain types of cancer. Strontium-82 is used as the parent for the production of 82Sr/82Rb generator systems. Rubidium-82 is an important PET marker for myocardial perfusion studies. This report describes the processing and purification of 90Sr from fission products, which can provide 90Sr suitable for fabrication of the 90Sr/90Y generator. Yttrium-90 is widely used for a variety of important therapeutic applications. Reactor production and subsequent processing of 188W provides this important parent species for fabrication of the 188W/188Re generator system to obtain 188Re perrhenate for incorporation into various therapeutic agent