Radionuclide production and yields at Washington University School of Medicine

Washington University School of Medicine has carried out the production of ''non-standard'' nuclides for the positron emission tomography (PET) community since 1999 under the Radionuclide Resource for Cancer Applications grant R24 CA 86307 funded by the National Cancer Institute. With the support from the grant, we have successfully developed procedures for the high yield production of a wide range of radionuclides and made them available to the research community. The following non-standard PET nuclides, (60)Cu, (61)Cu, (64)Cu, (76)Br, (77)Br, (124)I, (94m)Tc, and (86)Y are routinely produced on Washington University on-site Cyclotron Corporation CS-15 or Japan Steel Works 16/8 cyclotrons. Additionally, a technique to produce (45)Ti has been developed and lately, (89)Zr is being investigated. This paper describes the production techniques and presents the performance results in terms of yields and radionuclidic purity. Sufficient yields for distribution are achieved and high radionuclide purity is also achieved yielding high quality product for medical research.