Yttrium-90 () is an isotope of

yttrium Yttrium is a chemical element with the symbol Y and atomic number 39. It is a silvery-metallic transition metal chemically similar to the lanthanides and has often been classified as a "rare-earth element". Yttrium is almost always found in com ...

. Yttrium-90 has found a wide range of uses in

radiation therapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radia ...

to treat some forms of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

Decay

undergoes β⁻ decay to zirconium-90 with a half-life of 64.1 hours and a decay energy of 2.28 MeV with an average beta energy of 0.9336 MeV. It also produces 0.01% 1.7 MeV

photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they always ...

s during its decay process to the 0⁺ state of ⁹⁰Zr, followed by

pair production Pair production is the creation of a subatomic particle and its antiparticle from a neutral boson. Examples include creating an electron and a positron, a muon and an antimuon, or a proton and an antiproton. Pair production often refers specific ...

. The interaction between emitted

electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...

s and matter can lead to the emission of

Bremsstrahlung ''Bremsstrahlung'' (), from "to brake" and "radiation"; i.e., "braking radiation" or "deceleration radiation", is electromagnetic radiation produced by the deceleration of a charged particle when deflected by another charged particle, typicall ...

radiation.

Production

Yttrium-90 is produced by the nuclear decay of

strontium-90 Strontium-90 () is a radioactive isotope of strontium produced by nuclear fission, with a half-life of 28.8 years. It undergoes β− decay into yttrium-90, with a decay energy of 0.546 MeV. Strontium-90 has applications in medicine and i ...

which has a half-life of nearly 29 years and is a

fission product Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons, the release ...

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

used in nuclear reactors. As the strontium-90 decays, chemical high-purity separation is used to isolate the yttrium-90 before

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

Medical application

⁹⁰Y plays a significant role in the treatment of

hepatocellular carcinoma Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer in adults and is currently the most common cause of death in people with cirrhosis. HCC is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. It occurs in t ...

(HCC),

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

, and

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlar ...

, although it has the potential to treat a range of tumors. Trans-arterial radioembolization is a procedure performed by interventional radiologists in which microspheres are impregnated with ⁹⁰Y and injected into the arteries supplying the tumor. The microspheres become lodged in blood vessels surrounding the tumor and the resulting radiation damages the nearby tissue.

Radioembolization Selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT), also known as transarterial radioembolization (TARE), radioembolization or intra-arterial microbrachytherapy is a form of radiation therapy used in interventional radiology to treat cancer. It is general ...

with ⁹⁰Y significantly prolongs time-to-progression (TTP) of HCC, has a tolerable adverse event profile, and improves patient quality of life more than do similar therapies. ⁹⁰Y has also found uses in tumor diagnosis by imaging the Bremsstrahlung radiation released by the microspheres.

Positron emission tomography Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in Metabolism, metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including bl ...

after radioembolization is also possible.

References

External links

* {{Radiation oncology Isotopes of yttrium Radiopharmaceuticals

Decay

Production

Medical application

See also

References

External links