a higher octave for rare earths?, page-5

hiwayman,

have you seen this news breaking story ..

Yttrium-Lutetium update: Medical applications in focus

There seems to be growing interest in New Zealand in yttrium – mainly its medical properties.

Subscribers to REE World will have seen my most recent post there on the subject of yttrium, and the trail of reports since the 1950s about the use of yttrium-laced pellets to fight cancer. The idea was that these pellets could, by being inserted in the pituitary gland, impede the spread of cancer in the body and prolong patients’ lives.(Check out REE World’s latest bulletin for this and other up to the minute situationers.)

Now Allan Blackman. associate professor of chemistry at the University of Otago in the South Island city of Dunedin, believes that yttrium may have been part of Steve Jobs’ treatment for his neuroendocrine cancer – and in very much the same context as those reports from the 1950s onwards. Writing in the local Otago Daily Times, Blackman says it is widely believed Jobs was undergoing in Basel, Switzerland, a treatment called peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PPRT), which involves tagging a biological molecule with a radioactive nucleus, which the body is fooled into delivering to and killing the tumour.

But it’s not just yttrium in PPRT – but also the rare earth element lutetium. Writes Blackman: “While neither yttrium nor lutetium has a significant number of commercial applications, their radioactive isotopes 90Y and 177Lu are useful in PPRT as they emit radiation of sufficient energy and range to kill tumours while having short enough half-lives to ensure that the radiation dose will not be damaging to other organs of the body”.

This is going to be a fascinating development to watch.

Also in New Zealand, there’s work progressing on yttrium’s potential in copper wiring in a way that ensures there no loss of electricity in transmission lines. We’re on the job of finding out more and will get back on this.

For the full story visit ProEdgeWire (previously RareMetalBlog)

LTL