Dutch medical sector worried about dependence on Russia for cancer treatment materials

Dutch doctors and pharmaceutical companies are worried about Europe’s dependence on the Russian nuclear sector for the processed raw materials required for certain cancer treatments with radioactive medicines. Radioactive substances are increasingly used in hospitals for research and treatment of various types of cancer, and some are only available from Russia, NOS reports.

“With the substance Lutetium-177, we can, for example, make a medicine to treat metastatic prostate cancer,” Wim Oyen, a professor of nuclear medicine at the Arnhem Rijnstate Hospital and the vice-chairman of the Dutch Society for Nuclear Medicine, told the broadcaster. Several hundred patients get the treatment per year. “It extends their lives by about four months. And perhaps even more importantly, it makes the quality of life in those months much better.”

Medical scientists expect that many more hospitals will use this medicine in the coming years and that it may also help at an earlier stage of the disease. “And then you will use it for many thousands of patients.”

The nuclear substance needed for Lutetium-177 is obtained by enriching the rare metal Ytterbium, and that is done almost exclusively in Russia. Two years ago, the Russian nuclear state company Rosatom said that over 95 percent of the enrichment required to make the substance is done in Russia.

The same applies to Terbium-161, another radioactive substance used in cancer treatment. Although currently only used on a small scale, scientists expect that Terbium can work even better than Lutetium.

“Since Stalin’s time, Russia has had factories where they now make the starting materials for these radioactive isotopes,” Harry Buurlage, the European director of Shine, an American manufacturer of isotopes - as radioactive medicines are called. “All the West’s supplies come from there.”

That dependency on Russia worries the medical world. The radioactive substances for medical use, like uranium used for nuclear energy, are not covered by European sanctions against Russia. But some parites fear that sanctions will eventually be imposed or that Russia will stop deliveries as part of the geopolitical game. Others would rather not do business with Russian State-owned companies for moral reasons.

NOS surveyed 75 European market parties on this theme, and all agreed that they would like less dependency on suppliers from outside the EU. They particularly consider Russia a risky supplier.

Shine, the American isotope manufacturer, is working on facilities in Veendam to enrich the starting material for Lutetium and Terbium itself. The Dutch government provided 30 million euros in subsidies and loans for this project. The American company plans to start building next year. “We already produce Lutetium-177 in our factory in the United States. By the end of 2027 or the beginning of 2028, Lutetium production should also start in Veendam,” Buurlage told NOS. “As far as we are concerned, that will put an end to our dependence on Russia.”