Feasibility study on production of Sc-47 from neutron irradiated Ca target for cancer theranostics applications

Abstract

Scandium-47 is one of the most useful radioisotopes which is gaining great importance in cancer theranostics applications due to its favorable nuclear and chemical properties. MCNPX2.7.0 code was used to simulate the neutron activation of natural calcium target positioned at a thermal neutron flux of 1.8 × 1014 n cm−2 s−1 in the Egypt Second Research Reactor (ETRR-2). The burn card was used to calculate 47Ca and 47Sc radioactivities during 3 days irradiation and 20 days post-irradiation. The undesirable impurities generated during this period were also calculated. The obtained calculations were found to be in agreement with the experimental measurements. The distribution coefficient value (Kd) of 47Sc(III) as well as 47Ca(II) ions was determined using the commercially available ion-exchanger Chelex 100 in HNO3 and/or HCl media. Radiochemical separation of 47Sc(III) from 47Ca(II) was studied using HNO3 and HCl solutions and the results showed that HNO3 is a better medium than HCl for complete retention and recovery of 47Sc(III), where the recovery yields were 85 ± 1.2 and 95 ± 0.87 % using 1 M HCl and 1 M HNO3 solutions, respectively. The recovery yield obtained in our work was higher than in the reported procedures. Radionuclidic, radiochemical and chemical purities were investigated to ensure the suitability of 47Sc(III) for nuclear medicine applications.

Separation of 47Sc produced from natCa(n, γ) reaction for potential medical applications by a synthesized raspberry‐like structure of metal‐organic framework material

“…It is identified from the figure that the distribution coefficient values of scandium-47(III) and calcium-47(II) ions decrease with increasing the pH. Similar trend has been reported in various adsorbent materials [58,60]. Moreover, the distribution coefficient values of scandium(III) ions are little higher than that of calcium(II) ions, which may be attributed to the small ionic radius of scandium compared to that of calcium.…”

Separation of 44Sc from 44Ti in the Context of A Generator System for Radiopharmaceutical Purposes with the Example of [44Sc]Sc-PSMA-617 and [44Sc]Sc-PSMA-I&T Synthesis

“…Considering the published results on the successful extraction of n.c.a. scandium radionuclides ( 43,44,47 Sc) using chelating resins Chelex 100 [13,[29][30][31] and NOBIAS Chelate-PA1 [32], as well as our results on the efficient isolation of medical radionuclides from oxalate solutions with Chelex 100 (e.g., 89 Zr [33]), this type of resin has also been tested for the recovery of scandium-44 from the generator eluate.…”

Production of scandium radionuclides for theranostic applications: towards standardization of quality requirements

“…This method suffers mainly from the low natural abundance of 46 Ca (0.004%). Still, 47 Sc production from neutron irradiated natural Ca target was shown to be feasible (Gizawy et al 2020). Nontheless, to obtain significant activity of 47 Ca the target enriched in 46 Ca must be used (presently 46 Ca is available with a maximum 30% enrichment) which is rather expensive (Chakravarty et al 2017) but recycling would allow to drastically reduce the cost.…”