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