Lutetium isotopes for cancer therapy to produced at the TPU reactor

TOMSK, Aug 16 – RIA Tomsk. Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) plans to start at the university reactor the Russia's first production of lutetium-177 with the small content of lutetium-178; these isotopes will become a basis of radiopharmaceuticals for radiation therapy of malignant tumors, is reported on the website of the university on Tuesday.

It is specified that radioactive isotopes or connections which part they are, are applied to diagnosis of oncological diseases and to radiation therapy of malignant tumors. Radiopharmaceuticals are entered into the patient's organism, and isotope, collecting in certain cells, irradiates the struck cages. At the same time the impact on healthy tissue – is minimum.

"There is a lot of radioactive elements, isotopes, but the 177th and 178th lutetium possess the properties allowing to use them in medicine. They have a small half-life period, the energy of the let out beta particles is enough to irradiate the struck cells and not to touch adjacent to them healthy", – the head of the university technical physics department Igor Shamanin is quoted in the message.

According to TPU, now isotopes of lutetias-177 and lutetias-178 in Russia don't produced. The production line will be placed on the basis of the reactor of Polytechnic University which is the only in the country the operating research nuclear reactor at the university.

© РИА Томск. Яков Андреев

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Also on the basis of the reactor scientists develop technologies and the equipment for receiving essentially new radiopharmaceuticals on the basis of isotopes of samarium, rhenium, iodine, technetium-99. Development of radiopharmaceuticals is conducted within the frameworks of strategic academic unit "Nuclear technologies for oncology".