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