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 ybetaparticle range in soft tissue of w670 mm, 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 Y b, respectively by two production routes: 176 Lu(n,a) 177 Lu, 176 Y b(n,a) 177 Y b/ b-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 Y b 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.
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