Production of radiochemically and radionuclidically pure153Sm for medical applications

A procedure is described for the large scale production of radiochemically and radionuclidically pure¹⁵³Sm economically, from neutron irradiated natural Sm targets. Cation-exchange chromatography using 200–400 mesh Dowex-50×8 resin in the elution mode was used with 0.2M -hydroxyisobutyric acid (-HIBA) as the eluent at pH 4.7±1 and at 26±1 °C for this purpose. Typical decontaminations of carrier-free^(155+156)Eu radioactive impurities, of the order of 5×10², could be achieved in individual fractions, from millicurie amounts of¹⁵³Sm activity produced in milligram quantities of heavily neutron-irradiated natural Sm targets. Even though the¹⁵³Sm yields were at about 3% at these decontamination levels of impurities, the yields increased to an average of about 50% at about 95% level of decontamination of these impurities. It has been shown that the method is successful for producing radiochemically and radionuclidically pure¹⁵³Sm in sufficiently high radioactive concentrations for its probable conversion into¹⁵³SmEDTMP complex, a potential radiopharmaceutical useful in the palliative therapy of metastatic bone cancer.