Production of Strontium-89 Radioisotope by Neutron Activation Method and Preparation of 89Strontium Chloride Radiopharmaceutical

Strontium-89 is one of the most important radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine for therapy of bone pain caused by bone metastases. That is due to the beta radiation with sufficient energy for destroying metastatic sites in bone tissue. The routine application is ensured by introducing 89SrCl2 radiopharmaceutical and then injection of a specific dose in human vein, where it leads to reduction of bone pains. In this research, 89Sr was produced in the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) for both natural Sr (includes 84Sr and 88Sr) and enriched Sr (includes 88Sr of %99 purity) for the comparison and preparation of 89SrCl2 radiopharmaceutical. Natural radioactivated Sr which produces gamma radiation was injected in mice and then based on gamma spectroscopy in different tissues, a calculation was made for the dose absorption rate, defined by %ID/g. Also, radioactivated enriched Sr-88 was injected in mice and the %ID/g was calculated due to distribution of the beta radiation in mice tissues. In our biodistribution we observed a rapid blood clearance followed by the high absorption of activity in bone tissues. These data have shown that the prepared compound is a well defined radiopharmaceutical for the bone pain palliation in metastatic lesions.