The development of automated Yttrium-86 processing at Washington University

Objectives Yttrium-86 (t¹/₂ = 14.74 h, 32% β+) has the potential to be useful in evaluating 90Y-labelled radiopharmaceuticals as a positron-emitting analog. However, with its high energy positron and gamma ray emissions, processing of useful amounts 86Y needs to be performed remotely in a hot cell to minimize radiation dose to personnel.

Methods Enriched 86SrCO3 powder was pressed onto a platinum disk and irradiated with 15 MeV protons on a cyclotron to produce 86Y via the (p,n) pathway. The irradiated target material was dissolved in 6M HCl, and separated into Sr(OH)2 and Y(OH)3 via filtration as reported by Avila-Rodriguez (Appl. Radiat. Isot. 2008). The recovered 86Y was evaporated to dryness and reconstituted for subsequent radiolabeling. The flow in the system was controlled through a series of inert diaphragm valves and a vacuum. The components within the system were controlled using TTL digital I/O modules. Direct manual handling of activity was only necessary during target introduction and 86Y activity recovery.

Results The majority of initial activity was recovered after the processing. The recovered activity had high radionuclidic purity.

Conclusions It is possible to construct a module in-house to process 86Y. The commercial availability of the components and the simplicity of the control system make it possible to adapt this technology to the processing of other non-standard radionuclides. Ongoing efforts are being made to improve target integrity on the cyclotron and to minimize losses during activity transfers.

Research Support This work was supported by NIH/NCI Grant R24 CA086307 “Radionuclide Resource for Cancer Applications.\#8221;