Production of some theragnostic radionuclides by deuteron beam irradiation

Theragnostic medicine is a new integrated therapeutic system which can diagnose, deliver targeted therapy and monitor the response to therapy. This multifunctional platform is an emerging highlight in medicine that combines both diagnostic/imaging and therapeutic aspects. Presently, nuclear activations are carried out at the cyclotron K=38 of JRC-Ispra of EC (Scanditronix MC40, Uppsala, Sweden), that can deliver proton and alpha beams, with energy variable up to 38 MeV and deuteron beams of energy up to 19 MeV. The gamma and X-ray spectra are measured with several 15 % efficient, 2.3 keV (FWHM) resolution, coaxial 50 cm^-3 active volume HPGe detectors relative to 3 inches x 3 inches NaI(Tl) and a Compton to peak ratio of 30:1 at the 1332 keV photo-peak of ⁶⁰Co connected to Ortec mod. 918 and 919A MCAs. The Quality Control tests are carried out for both chemical and radiochemical purities, by use of ET-AAS, INAA, hyphenated with LSC and HPGe spectrometries. Some of radionuclides that emit both imaging photons as well as therapeutic electrons and which would be potentially excellent choices for metabolic radiotherapy and theragnostic applications are reported. As examples of recent research at LASA we present the results obtained for the optimization of the production by deuterons irradiations of ^186gRe and ^177gLu