Cyclotron-Based Production of ⁶⁷Cu for Radionuclide Theranostics via the ⁷⁰Zn(p,α)⁶⁷Cu Reaction

Theranostic matched pairs of radionuclides have aroused interest during the last couple of years, and in that sense, copper is one element that has a lot to offer, and although ⁶¹Cu and ⁶⁴Cu are slowly being established as diagnostic radionuclides for PET, the availability of the therapeutic counterpart ⁶⁷Cu plays a key role for further radiopharmaceutical development in the future. Until now, the ⁶⁷Cu shortage has not been solved; however, different production routes are being explored. This project aims at the production of no-carrier-added ⁶⁷Cu with high radionuclidic purity with a medical 30MeV compact cyclotron via the ⁷⁰Zn(p,α)⁶⁷Cu reaction. With this purpose, proton irradiation of electrodeposited ⁷⁰Zn targets was performed followed by two-step radiochemical separation based on solid-phase extraction. Activities of up to 600MBq ⁶⁷Cu at end of bombardment, with radionuclidic purities over 99.5% and apparent molar activities of up to 80MBq/nmol, were quantified.