Preparation and characterization of radionuclide 64Cu for positron emission tomographic diagnosis and therapy

We occupy ourselves with preparation of 64Cu using cyclotron IBA 18/9. 64Cu is a starting product for production of radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomographic diagnostics and therapy and metrological characterization as well. The use of non-traditional PET radionuclides has been spread in the world recently. Due to the physical properties (T1/2=12.7 h, β- 37.1 %, β+ 17.9 %), 64Cu is suitable for therapy (β-) and diagnosing as well (β+). 64Cu is suitable radionuclide for labeling of radiopharmaceuticals on the basis of bis-thiosemicarbazone for study of hypoxic tumors. The number and orientation of articles and papers at conferences show a great demand for 64Cu in the world. It is caused by specific physical properties and possibility of preparation in small biomedical cyclotrons as well. An electrolytic preparation of a target lies in a galvanostatic plating of 64Ni on a gold target. The target is irradiated by a cyclotron IBA Cyclone 18/9. COSTIS station (Compact Solid Target Irradiation System) is installed at the end of external proton beam. 64Cu is separated from the target material by ionex Bio-Rad AG1-X8 as [64Cu]CuCl2. The target material is recycled by a simple method. A process of 64Cu preparation is completely automated and runs in a separation module with PLC SIMATIC S7-1200 developed by Biont a.s. The product was measured by an ionization chamber (Curiementor), HPGe detector and LSC method (TDCR). (author)