Biomedical applications of cyclotrons and review of commercially available models.

The growing use of cyclotrons in biomedicine, both for clinical and research purposes and in particular for the production of short-lived radionuclides which are extremely useful in nuclear medicine diagnosis, has reached a stage in which commercial companies are able to offer several models with different performances, in order to satisfy the demand of different users. Many of these commercially produced accelerators are installed all over the world and some of them have been operating for several years, demonstrating that this category of machine has reached a high degree of reliability. A brief description of the operating principle of the cyclotron is presented, together with an illustration of its possible applications in the medical field. A list of the models presently available on the market is given and the installation problems and the criteria to be followed in the choice of a model are discussed. Finally, likely future developments in the field are briefly discussed.