Single center experience on the production of fluorine-18 radiopharmaceuticals using a 7.5 MeV cyclotron: capabilities and challenges

Abstract

A plethora of cyclotron options have been developed to fulfil the demands of nuclear medicine industries in PET and SPECT radioisotopes. As a remote site, the difficulties of transporting fluorine 18 radiopharmaceuticals for PET examinations were overcome by the installation of a 7.5 MeV cyclotron for in-house production. The addition of a third-party synthesis module enabled the synthesis of 7 additional radiotracers according to a ''dose on demand'' principle. Radiochemical yield is considered the primary factor in producing sufficient activity for a single patient dose, since low energy cyclotrons can only offer low initial activities. We hereby report the average radiochemical yields, synthesis times and doses per production for [ 18 F]FDG, [ 18 F]PSMA-1007, [ 18 F]DOPA, [ 18 F]FET, [ 18 F]FLT, [ 18 F]FMISO, [ 18 F]Choline and [ 18 F]FES using a BG75 cyclotron and a Neptis Mosaic-RS. Additionally, the presence of radionuclidic impurities in the final product was examined.