Availability of Yttrium-90 from Strontium-90: A Nuclear Medicine Perspective

Abstract

Yttrium-90 (T(½) 64.1 hours, E(βmax)=2.28 MeV) is a pure β⁻ particle emitting radionuclide with well-established applications in targeted therapy. There are several advantages of ⁹⁰Y as a therapeutic radionuclide. It has a suitable physical half-life (∼64 hours) and decays to a stable daughter product ⁹⁰Zr by emission of high-energy β⁻ particles. Yttrium has a relatively simple chemistry and its suitability for forming complexes with a variety of chelating agents is well established. The ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y generator is an ideal source for the long-term continuous availability of no-carrier-added ⁹⁰Y suitable for the preparation of radiopharmaceuticals for radionuclide therapy. The parent radionuclide ⁹⁰Sr, which is a long-lived fission product, is available in large quantities from spent fuel. Several useful technologies have been developed for the preparation of ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y generators. There are several well-established radiopharmaceuticals based on monoclonal antibodies, peptides, and particulates labeled with ⁹⁰Y, that are in regular use for the treatment of some forms of primary cancers and arthritis. At present, there are no generators for the elution of ⁹⁰Y that can be set up in a hospital radiopharmacy. The radionuclide is procured from manufacturers and the radiopharmaceuticals are formulated on site. This article reviews the development of ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y generator and the development of ⁹⁰Y radiopharmaceuticals.

Application of Ion-Exchange Resin Column for Basic Development of Strontium-90/Yttrium-90 Generator for Preparation of Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

“…Subsequently, 5 mL of 8 M HNO 3 was taken, put into the column and let it flow into the beaker. In this way, the addition of 5 mL of 8 M HNO 3 should be done up to three times.…”

“…The therapy with yttrium-90 radiocolloid, specifically, for lung is invented by Pochim and coworker [3][4]. Ytrrium-90 (Y-90) itself is a pure β-ray emitter with a maximum energy of 2.26 MeV with a half-life of 64 h [4].…”

“…Ytrrium-90 is produced in a generator through a reaction of decaying strontium-90 to yttrium-90 [3,8]. In this case, generator Sr-90/Y-90 should be designed at its best in order to make it applicable to medical officers in hospitals.…”

“…The statement of the problem in the research is that Sr-90/Y-90 generator made must be able to produce Y-90 with a high degree of purity [3]. A high purity separation using cation-exchange resin will occur if the difference of distributive coefficient between Sr-90 and Y-90 is appreciable.…”

Retention profile and chromatographic separation of Y3+ from Sr2+ by Chelex-100 (cation ion exchanger) physically immobilized with ammonium ion

“…Introduction 90 Y is one of the important radioisotopes useful in medicine due to its favorable properties that include pure and high energy b emission (E max = 2.28 MeV) that allows tissue penetration to a relatively long range and non-radioactive daughter [1][2][3]. In radioimmuno-therapy, many successful applications of site-specific monoclonal antibody labeling involving 90 Y have been reported [1,4].…”