Study of the viability of the production of lutetium - 177 in the nuclear reactor IEA-R1 at IPEN/CNEN-SP

The - emitter 177 Lu is a promising therapeutic radioisotope for the curative treatment of cancer using labelled proteins. It has a half - life of 6.71 day and maximum and average (3 energies of 421 and 133 keV, respectively, resulting in a short range of irradiation of tissue. The decay is accompanied by the emission of low energy -radiation of 208.3 keV (11%) and 113 keV (6.4%), suitable for simultaneous imaging. Lu can be produced by two different routes, namely, by irradiation of natural Lu2O3 target (176Lu, 2.6%) or enriched (in 176Lu) Lu2O3 target, and also by irradiation of Yb target (Yb2O3) followed by radiochemical separation of Lu from Yb isotopes. The objective of this work is the development of a method of the production of 177 Lu through of the (n, gamma) nuclear reaction, by the direct and indirect method of production. Targets of lutetium oxide and ytterbium oxide were irradiated for evaluation of the activity produced and the chemical separation of lutetium and ytterbium was studied using different ion exchange resins. For the direct method, the best results were obtained using the target Lu2O3 enriched in 39.6%. The best results for the indirect method were achieved with the process of separation using 0.25M - HlBA as eluent. The results showed that it is possible to produce 177 Lu of low specific activity for labeling molecules used for bone pain relief and in radiosynoviortesy. (author)