68Ga or 18F for Prostate Cancer Imaging? | Journal of Nuclear Medicine

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TABLE 1

Comparison of ⁶⁸Ga and ¹⁸F

Parameter	⁶⁸Ga	¹⁸F
Half-life	68 min (less radiation burden to relatives [complete decay within a few hours after examination]; shippable only to close satellite centers)	110 min (satellite shipping possible; delayed imaging after longer incubation time possible)
Positron energy	1.90 MeV (penetration depth of positron theoretically higher [most pronounced in lungs] but widely negligible in solid tissues using standard reconstruction algorithms and adjusted filtering)	0.65 MeV (lower radiation burden despite longer half-life; theoretically higher resolution)
Labeling	Chelator molecules (dedicated environment required, but kit formulation [one vial, room temperature] also possible)	Prosthetic group molecules (dedicated environment required [hot cells, remotely controlled radiosynthesizers])
Theranostic approach	One-molecule approach (radiolabeling with diagnostic [e.g., ⁶⁸Ga] and therapeutic [e.g., ¹⁷⁷Lu, ²²⁵A, ²¹³Bi] radionuclides possible [PSMA-11 can be radiolabeled only with diagnostic radionuclide])	Tandem approach (different chemical structure of diagnostic and structurally related therapeutic tracer [e.g., PSMA-1007/PSMA-617, DCFPyl/MIP-1095])
Upfront investment and running costs	Generators (∼50,000 USD/EUR, ∼2 generators per year); radiosynthesizer or kit production	Cyclotron (∼1,000,000–3,000,000 USD/EUR); radiosynthesizers connected to cyclotron; ¹⁸O-water as target material per production run
Scalability	Defined generator capacity	Production demand well scalable to adapt requested number of examinations