To Advance Cancer Therapy, University Starts Producing Terbium-161
Steps in terbium-161 (Tb-161) production. The University of Utah TRIGA reactor induces thermal neutron capture on gadolinium-160 (Gd-160), which decays to Tb-161. Separating the Gd-160 target yields high-purity Tb-161 for cancer therapy and diagnosis. Graphic courtesy of Connor Holiski.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Isotope R&D and Production, within the Office of Science, is supporting advancements in cancer care through novel isotope production techniques. Terbium-161 (Tb-161) is a medical radioisotope with a half-life of approximately 7 days, meaning that it loses half of its radioactivity in a week. In this study, researchers from the University of Utah, in collaboration with the University of Missouri, produced Tb-161 using the University of Utah’s TRIGA research reactors. These low-power reactors are used for training and research. In the reactors, Gd-160 target materials are exposed to neutrons. This causes the Gd-160 to absorb a neutron and transform into Gd-161, which then quickly decays into Tb-161. This process is advantageous because it produces a new element (Tb-161) that can be separated from the original material (Gd-160). This is unlike traditional methods where the product is chemically identical to the target.
This research was supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) Isotope Program, managed by the DOE Office of Science for Isotope R&D and Production. This work was also supported in part by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Fellowship.
