Columbia Daily Tribune
Under a new agreement, the University of Missouri Research Reactor will supply a radioisotope that serves as a key ingredient in a cancer therapy.
The multi-year agreement is with Advanced Accelerator Applications International, a Novartis pharmaceutical manufacturing company.
Since 2017, the research reactor has produced the radioisotope Lutetium-177 for the company under the name Lutathera. It is used to treat some tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas.
The new version of the radioisotope contains no trace of the long-lived isotope. That's a real benefit because hospitals won't have the same regulations for use, storage and disposal they have with the current version, said David Robertson, research reactor director.