Recent Advances of Copper-64 Based Radiopharmaceuticals in Nuclear Medicine

Abstract

Copper radioisotopes including copper-60/61/62, and -64 exhibit a wide range of decay characteristics, making them appropriate choices for diagnostic/therapeutic (theranostic) applications in nuclear medicine. One notable feature of copper is the feasible coordination chemistry, which makes radiolabeling of a wide range of chemical structures including antibodies, proteins, peptides, and other biologically relevant small molecules possible. This chapter will summarize common radiopharmaceuticals of copper-64 and their radiation dosimetry in order to highlight recent improvements of positron emission tomography diagnostics.