New trends in nuclear data research for medical radionuclide production

Abstract

Medical radionuclide / Optimisation of production route / Nuclear reaction cross section / Standardisation of data / Alternative routes for production of 99m Tc and 68 Ga / Non-standard positron emitter / Novel therapeutic radionuclide Summary. Nuclear reaction cross section data are of great significance in optimisation of production routes of radionuclides. This article deals with some newer aspects of data research related to production of both standard and novel radionuclides. The recent work to standardise the known data is discussed and new measurements with regard to further optimisation of production routes of some commonly used radionuclides are mentioned. Attempts to increase the specific activity of some reactor-produced radionuclides through the use of charged-particle induced reactions are outlined. The jeopardy in the supply of 99m Tc via a fission-produced 99 Mo/ 99m Tc generator is considered and its possible direct production at a cyclotron is briefly discussed. Regarding the novel radionuclides, development work is presently focussed on non-standard positron emitters for diagnosis and on low-range highly ionising radiation emitters for internal radiotherapy. Recent nuclear reaction cross section measurements related to the production of the two types of radionuclides are briefly reviewed and some anticipated trends in nuclear data research are considered.

New production cross sections for the theranostic radionuclide 67Cu

“…Although 67 Cu production started in nuclear reactors about 45 years ago, over the last decades it shifted over particle accelerators, due to the higher quality of the final product that meets the specifications required for its use in targeted therapy [9,10]. In comparison with other production routes, such as 64 Ni(α,n), 70 Zn(d,αn) and 70 Zn(p,α) [11][12][13][14][15], the advantages of using the 68 Zn(p,2p) 67 Cu reaction are mainly based on the cheaper price of enriched target material needed ( 68 Zn natural abundance is 18.45%, 70 Zn is 0.61% and 64 Ni is 0.9255%) and the use of intense proton beams, available by several particle accelerators, including compact cyclotrons [16]. In the framework of the project LARAMED (LAboratory of RAdionuclides for MEDicine) [17], a collaboration between the ARRONAX facility (Acceleration for Research in Radiochemistry and Oncology at Nantes Atlantique) [18] and INFN-LNL (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro) recently started, aimed at the investigation of the best production routes, based on high-performance cyclotrons, of radionuclides with relevant medical interest, including 67 Cu.…”

Nuclear data for medical radionuclides

“…The activities consist of new experimental measurements, nuclear model calculations, and standardisation and evaluation of existing data [for earlier reviews cf. [1][2][3][4][5].…”

Positron and γ-ray intensities in the decay of 45Ti

“…The accompanying -radiation need to comply with the general conditions mentioned above, most of the non-standard positron emitters do not. In addition, the nuclear decay data of many of those PET nuclides appear to be rather imprecise and therefore need to be re-measured [7,8]. A promising, so far less regarded radionuclide which seems to satisfy the requirements for in vivo imaging is titanium-45.…”