Radiation stability and performance of TEHDGA resin for theranostic scandium radionuclide purification.

BACKGROUND: Scandium radionuclides are emerging theranostic radionuclides that offer matched diagnostic and therapeutic emissions for targeted applications in nuclear medicine. For their safe and effective clinical use, it is crucial to obtain preparations with very high radiochemical purity, which in turn relies on carefully optimized physical separation and chemical purification strategies. A selective and clinically attractive method for purification is ion-exchange solid-phase extraction; however, its performance and expected resin lifetime under high radiation doses and repeated separation cycles remains insufficiently considered. This study provides a critical evaluation of the radiation stability and separation performance of the N, N,N',N'-tetra(2-ethylhexyl)diglycolamide (TEHDGA) ion-exchange resin. No clear changes in selectivity, ion-exchange capacity or recoverability have been observed. CONCLUSIONS: TEHDGA resin can be deemed suitable for theranostic scandium radionuclide purification from metallic contaminants; however, further research is needed to assess the possible transient effects of short-lived radiolysis intermediates during practical scandium radionuclide purification.