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REVIEW article

Front. Nucl. Med.
Sec. Radiopharmacy and Radiochemistry
Volume 4 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnume.2024.1472500
This article is part of the Research Topic The Shining Era of Radiometals in Nuclear Medicine: Advancement from Bench to Bedside View all articles

Terbium sisters: current development status and upscaling opportunities

Provisionally accepted
Anzhelika N. Moiseeva Anzhelika N. Moiseeva 1Chiara Favaretto Chiara Favaretto 1,2Zeynep Talip Zeynep Talip 3Pascal V. Grundler Pascal V. Grundler 1Nicholas Van Der Meulen Nicholas Van Der Meulen 1,3*
  • 1 Center for Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland
  • 2 Radiopharmacy and cyclotron department, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria, Negrar, Italy
  • 3 Laboratory of Radiochemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Villigen-PSI, Switzerland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The interest in terbium radionuclides, which can be used in nuclear medicine, has increased tremendously over the last decade. Several research studies have shown the potential of four terbium radionuclides 149,152,155,161 Tb both for cancer diagnosis as well as therapy. The comparison of 161 Tb and 177 Lu showed 161 Tb as the preferred candidate not only for standard radiotherapy, but also for the treatment of minimal residual disease. Nevertheless, among the terbium sisters, currently, only 161 Tb has an established production protocol where its no-carrier-added form is obtained via neutron irradiation of enriched 160 Gd targets. The other terbium radioisotopes face challenges related to production capacity and production yield, which currently restricts their use in nuclear medicine. The purpose of this review is to report on recent research on the production and separation of terbium sisters and to assess the prospects for upscaling their production for nuclear medicine applications.

    Keywords: Terbium, Theragnostics, Radiolanthanides, Production capabilities, nuclear reactions

    Received: 29 Jul 2024; Accepted: 26 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Moiseeva, Favaretto, Talip, Grundler and Van Der Meulen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Nicholas Van Der Meulen, Center for Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.