Thousands of cancer and heart patients will benefit from a new Oak Ridge National Laboratory program to make rhenium-188 generators more widely available and to streamline the distribution process. Rhenium-188, a radioisotope that has proven useful in treating various types of cancer and for a treatment that makes angioplasty more effective, has been available from an ORNL generator on a limited basis since the mid-1990s. The "current Good Manufacturing Practice" will address restrictions that had hampered distribution of the radioisotope. "The bottom line is this program will provide broader access of rhenium-188 to many patients who until now would not have access to these potentially life-saving treatments," said Russ Knapp, a corporate fellow and manager of the Nuclear Medicine Program at the Department of Energy's ORNL. Funding is provided by DOE's Offices of Nuclear Energy, Biological and Environmental Research and the Office of Science.
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