Purification and laser isotope separation of 176Yb for Medical Applications

These days, new medical technologies using radioisotopes have been developed for an imaging and treatment for several cancers. They have led to an increase in the usage of the enriched stable isotopes as the source materials for the radioisotopes. Especially, the radioisotope, ¹⁷⁷Lu, is emerging as an important candidate for a broad therapeutic use such as prostate, breast, colon, and brain cancer because of its several outstanding features (C.S. Cutler et al., 2000).