Production of Lu-177 Radionuclide using Deuteron Beams: Comparison between (d,n) and (d,p) Nuclear Reactions

Lutetium-177 (¹⁷⁷Lu) radioisotope has been suggested for radioimmunotherapy application in nuclear medicine. Presently ¹⁷⁷Lu has been mostly produced using neutron activation in nuclear reactors, whereas cyclotron-based production has not been well explored. In this paper, we theoretically propose cyclotron-based deuteron beams for ¹⁷⁷Lu production. By Employing the TALYS 2017 codes, we calculated nuclear cross-sections and the End-of-Bombardment (EOB) yields of ¹⁷⁶Yb(d,n) ¹⁷⁷Lu reaction for direct production of ¹⁷⁷Lu as well as ¹⁷⁶Yb(d,p)¹⁷⁷Yb→¹⁷⁷Lu reaction for indirect production of ¹⁷⁷Lu. The TALYS calculated cross-sections indicated that the threshold energy of both investigated nuclear reactions is 0 MeV; thus ¹⁷⁷Lu could be produced at low deuteron energy bombardment, though significant amount of ¹⁷⁷Lu radioactivity could only be generated for deuteron beams with energy greater than 6 MeV. The calculated EOB yields for ¹⁷⁶Yb(d,n)¹⁷⁷Lu reaction and ¹⁷⁶Yb(d,p)¹⁷⁷Yb reaction were 0.519 and 181.1 MBq/μAh respectively, which well agreed with previous experimental results published elsewhere. In conclusion, both nuclear reactions are possible for ¹⁷⁷Lu production though the indirect method via ¹⁷⁶Yb(d,p)¹⁷⁷Yb→¹⁷⁷Lu reaction would give much better EOB yield than that of direct method. (paper)