Production and quality control of high specific activity NCA Re-186 by cyclotron irradiation

The applications of the radionuclides play a fundamental role in life sciences; their greater user is the nuclear medicine, which, nowadays, has become an indispensable branch of medical science and, as the production of radionuclides and labeled compounds for medical applications, is becoming more and more a relevant branch of nuclear and radiochemistry. The Re-186g is a negatron-gamma emitter presently used in metabolic radiotherapy with optimal perspectives to be used in radioimmunotherapy too, thanks to its suitable nuclear properties: t(1/2)=90.64 h, E(beta,max)=1 071 keV, main E(gamma)=137 keV. In particular the energy range of the negatron particles suggests that this radionuclide is effective for cancers with dimensions from few mm to a few cm. The possibility to use this radionuclide for therapeutic purposes is linked to the possibility to increase its specific activity AS, substituting the common (n,gamma) reaction on Re-185 with the (p,n) or (d,2n) cyclotron production on W-186 targets, followed by a selective radiochemical separation of the product in no-carrier-added form from both W target and Ta co-produced radionuclides.