Compact infrastructure, room to grow: supporting lutetium therapies at Clinique de Genolier

How can a clinic expand radioligand therapy without building large underground decay tanks? At Clinique de Genolier in Switzerland, Zereau is combining source-based filtration with compact water buffering in two treatment rooms. Installation is scheduled for October 2026, with the first clinical use planned for November.

The clinic will initially focus on lutetium therapies, with patients staying for 22 hours. This treatment schedule offers the potential to scale up to five patients per room per week -supported by a wastewater system designed to accommodate growth.

Every water stream accounted for

Each room combines a RadiCatch® Toilet Filter System Series 5 (TFS) with a Water Buffer System (WBS). The TFS treats all patient excreta discharged through the toilet, capturing both solids (fecal matter, toilet paper) and radionuclides in filters, before the treated toilet water enters the WBS.

Showers, washbasins and staff sinks are also connected to the WBS units. These collect and store the water, allowing sampling and controlled discharge. If an incident results in activity in a buffer exceeding the permitted discharge level, additional filtration can be applied before release, with a filtration option installed in both WBS.

The Swiss approach of assessing total radionuclide activity in the collected wastewater fits well with Zereau’s combination of low water consumption and highly efficient radionuclide removal.

More treatment capacity, less infrastructure

For Genolier, conventional decay tanks would have required a dedicated new building to accommodate the large storage volumes. Zereau’s compact configuration instead fits within the treatment ward, using a cabinet-based storage for the collected water. Equipment, sampling points, storage for decay and monitoring are located and accessible on the same floor safely shielded, which also reduce staff movements.

“This gives the clinic great flexibility to increase patient throughput, with no dependence on large storage volumes.”

Concentrating activity where it can be managed

By capturing radionuclides at the source, the TFS concentrates activity in replaceable filters. The water subsequently collected in the buffers therefore carries a much lower activity burden, with sampling used to confirm suitability for discharge.

The concentrated sources are housed in dedicated shielding designed to limit staff exposure and allow safe, space-efficient local storage.

At Clinique de Genolier, this combination of filtration, buffering and controlled discharge creates a compact foundation for lutetium therapy—ready to support the first patients and accommodate future growth in patient numbers and new radionuclides to come.