Sustainable production of orphan radionuclides at Wisconsin

• Authors: R. J. Nickles, University of Wisconsin; M. A. Avila-Rodriguez, University of Wisconsin; Jonathon A Nye, Emory University; E. N. Houser, University of Wisconsin; R. G. Selwyn, University of Wisconsin; M. J. Schueller, Brookhaven National Laboratory; B. T. Christian, University of Wisconsin; M. Jensen, University of Wisconsin
• Journal Title: Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
• Volume: Volume 52, Number 2
• Publisher: Edizioni Minerva Medica | 2008-06-01, Pages 134-139
• Type of Work: Article | Post-print: After Peer Review
• Subjects: Physics, Nuclear
• Keywords: Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging; radionuclides; radiopharmaceuticals; tomography, emission computed; CYCLOTRON; TARGET; I-124; Y-90

Abstract

Over a hundred proton-induced reactions have been studied at the University of Wisconsin Medical Physics department since the installation of the first CTI RDS 112 in 1985. The focus has been to measure thick target yields at 11 MeV, in an effort to concentrate on the practical production of positron emitting radionuclides that have favorable decay characteristics, high yields and the potential for labeling pivotal biological tracers. This review covers our recent advances to scale-up the production of the heavy halogens and transition metals as feed-stock for non-conventional PET tracers that are currently attracting increased attention in oncology.