{"entity":{"id":"re-188","kind":"isotope","name":"Rhenium-188","aka":["188Re","Re-188"],"tldr":"A high-energy radioactive metal that a hospital can produce on demand from a small on-site generator, similar to how a common medical imaging isotope is made, rather than needing to import it. It is used for hard-to-reach tumours, including liver cancer.","summary":"Rhenium-188 is a high-energy beta emitter (maximum energies of 2.12 MeV, 71.1% abundance, and 1.96 MeV, 25.6%; mean beta energy around 763-784 keV) with a short 16.9-17.0 hour physical half-life and a co-emitted 155 keV gamma (about 15% abundance) that permits gamma-camera imaging, biodistribution and dosimetry studies -- chemically and logistically analogous to technetium-99m.\n\nIts key practical feature is on-demand generator production: 188Re is eluted as carrier-free sodium perrhenate from a tungsten-188/rhenium-188 generator, in which the long-lived parent 188W (half-life 69.4 days) is fixed on an alumina column, much like a molybdenum-99/technetium-99m generator. A single generator can supply daily eluted doses for around six months to a year, making 188Re one of the few therapeutic isotopes that hospitals in resource-limited settings can access without importing short-lived material.\n\n188W itself is made in a high-flux reactor by double neutron capture on enriched tungsten-186, 186W(n,γ)187W(n,γ)188W, at facilities such as the High Flux Isotope Reactor (Oak Ridge, USA), the SM-3 reactor (Russia) and BR2 (Belgium). 188Re-labelled agents (e.g. 188Re-HDD/lipiodol for hepatocellular carcinoma, 188Re-labelled bone and vascular agents) have been used mainly in investigator-led studies and in India and other countries where the generator route lowers cost, but none has reached FDA or EMA approval.","status":"phase-2","asOf":"2026-09-22","links":[{"label":"Rhenium-188 Production in Hospitals, by W-188/Re-188 Generator (PMC, 2013)","url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3638650/"},{"label":"Fundamentals of Rhenium-188 Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry (Pharmaceutics, 2023)","url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9921938/"},{"label":"Rhenium-188 Labeled Radiopharmaceuticals: Current Clinical Applications (Front Chem, 2019)","url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6587137/"}],"tags":["therapy","beta emitter","gamma emitter","generator-produced"],"related":["hcc","radionuclide-generators-kits","bone-metastases"],"indications":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"symbol":"188Re","element":"Rhenium","massNumber":188,"halfLife":"16.9-17.0 hours","emissions":["β− 2.12 MeV maximum (71.1%)","β− 1.96 MeV maximum (25.6%)","γ 155 keV (~15%)"],"emissionClass":"beta-minus","use":"therapy","tissueRange":"Mean about 3.1 mm, maximum about 10-11 mm","production":"Generator: eluted as carrier-free sodium perrhenate from a tungsten-188/rhenium-188 generator; 188W made in a reactor by double neutron capture on enriched 186W, 186W(n,γ)187W(n,γ)188W.","supply":"adequate","supplyNote":"Generator-based, on-demand production keeps 188Re accessible without importing short-lived material; the 69.4-day 188W parent lets one generator supply doses for roughly 6-12 months. 188W production is concentrated at a small number of high-flux reactors (HFIR in the US, SM-3 in Russia, BR2 in Belgium).","chelators":[],"pairedWith":["tc-99m"]},"route":"/isotopes/re-188/","neighbours":{"indication":[{"id":"hcc","kind":"indication","name":"Hepatocellular carcinoma","route":"/indications/hcc/"}],"technology":[{"id":"radionuclide-generators-kits","kind":"technology","name":"Radionuclide generators and cold kits","route":"/technologies/radionuclide-generators-kits/"}],"term":[{"id":"bone-metastases","kind":"term","name":"Bone metastases and skeletal-related events","route":"/terms/bone-metastases/"}],"drug":[{"id":"re-188-sct","kind":"drug","name":"Rhenium-188 skin cancer therapy","route":"/drugs/re-188-sct/"}],"company":[{"id":"oncobeta","kind":"company","name":"OncoBeta","route":"/companies/oncobeta/"}]}}