Original Research ArticleProduction of therapeutic quantities of 64Cu using a 12 MeV cyclotron
Introduction
64Cu, which is one of the most useful radio-copper radionuclides for internal radiation therapy, has an intermediate half-life (T0 1/2 = 12.7 hrs) and a multiple decay mode that involves β3 -, electron capture, and positron decay. These characteristics make 64Cu radiopharmaceuticals useful for radiotherapy [2], [3], [5] and for PET monitoring of tumors [1], [4], [8].
It has been shown that 64Cu can be produced using a small cyclotron and the 64Ni(p,n)64Cu nuclear reaction [9], [10]. We report here about the adaptation of this method for the production of 64Cu using the 12 MeV proton cyclotron in our facility and improvements in the 64Ni recycling method.
Section snippets
Materials
All reagents were metal-free. Glassware and other tools were pre-treated with 0.1 N HNO 3 for over 2 hrs, ensuring that contamination with metals was avoided, to prevent a decrease in the radionuclidic purity and specific activity of 64Cu. Enriched 64Ni (94.8%) was purchased from Trace Sciences International (Richmond Hills, Ontario, Canada). Gold disks (2.0 cm diameter x 0.1 cm thickness, 99.99%) and graphite rods (0.5 cm diameter, 99.99%) were obtained from Niraco (Japan). High purity H2SO4
64Ni target preparation
Target preparation was performed using the methods previously reported [6]. Between 9.380 and 25.27 mg of 64Ni was plated on the gold disk. Plating efficiencies were more than 60%.
Radionuclidic yield of 64Cu
In this study, the yield of 64Cu was 0.6 to > 3 mCi/μA*h, with an average of 1.983 mCi/μA*h. The yield was consistently > 3 mCi/μA*h, reaching up to 6.565 mCi/μA*h in the latest study, although they were lower than the predicted yields (Table 1). The yields of 64Cu reported previously using 11 MeV and 11.4 MeV proton
Conclusion
Sufficient qualities and quantities of 64Cu for therapeutic and diagnostic applications using PET can be obtained using an ultra-small cyclotron in a regular PET center. Collection of 64Cu and recycling of 64Ni can be accomplished with such a high efficiency that availability of 64Cu is dramatically improved in the therapeutic and/or diagnostic fields of oncology.
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