Production of Y-86 and other radiometals for research purposes using a solution target system

We demonstrated production quantities that are sufficient for chemical and biological studies for three separate radiometals, 89Zr (Asat = 360 MBq/μA and yield = 3.17 MBq/μA), 86Y (Asat = 31 MBq/μA and yield = 1.44 MBq/μA), and 68Ga (Asat = 141 MBq/μA and yield = 64 MBq/μA) from one hour long irradiations on a typical medical cyclotron. 68Ga yields were sufficient for potential clinical applications. In order to avoid corrosion of the target body and target foil, nitrate solutions were chosen as well as niobium as target-body material. An automatic loading system enabled up to three production runs per day. The separation efficiency ranged from 82 to 99%. Subsequently, 68Ga and 86Y were successfully used to radiolabel DOTA-based chelators while deferoxamine was used to coordinate 89Zr.