Current Status of Preparation of Terbium Radionuclides for Theranostic Applications

Terbium has four clinically available radionuclides for nuclear medicine applications, ¹⁴⁹Tb, ¹⁵²Tb, ¹⁵⁵Tb, and ¹⁶¹Tb. Their unique decay properties and identical chemistry make it possible to prepare radiopharmaceuticals with same ligand, thus enabling the better formation of theranostic radionuclide pairs for better theranostics. They have valuable application in radionuclide imaging and therapeutic applications. However, among the Tb series radionuclides, only ¹⁶¹Tb currently has mass production method and its no carrier-added form was obtained via neutron irradiation of enriched ¹⁶⁰Gd targets. Other Tb radionuclides face challenges in capacity and yield, which limit their application in nuclear medicine. This review elaborates on the basic properties, the production routes and the latest research of the Tb series radionuclides, hoping it can provide reference for the research and application of Tb series radionuclides in China.