Boschi Alessandra, Martini Petra, Pasquali Micol, Uccelli Licia
a Department of Morphology, Surgery and Experimental Medicine , University of Ferrara , Italy.
b Department of Physics and Heart Science , University of Ferrara , Ferrara , Italy.
Drug Dev Ind Pharm. 2017 Sep;43(9):1402-1412. doi: 10.1080/03639045.2017.1323911. Epub 2017 May 15.
Tc is the most commonly used radionuclide in the field of diagnostic imaging, a noninvasive method intended to diagnose a disease, assess the disease state and monitor the effects of treatments. Annually, the use of Tc, covers about 85% of nuclear medicine applications. This isotope releases gamma rays at about the same wavelength as conventional X-ray diagnostic equipment, and owing to its short half-life (t = 6 h) is ideal for diagnostic nuclear imaging. A patient can be injected with a small amount of Tc and within 24 h almost 94% of the injected radionuclide would have decayed and left the body, limiting the patient's radiation exposure. Tc is usually supplied to hospitals through a Mo/Tc radionuclide generator system where it is produced from the β decay of the parent nuclide Mo (t = 66 h), which is produced in nuclear reactors via neutron fission. Recently, the interruption of the global supply chain of reactor-produced Mo, has forced the scientific community to investigate alternative production routes for Tc. One solution was to consider cyclotron-based methods as potential replacement of reactor-based technology and the nuclear reaction Mo(p,2n)Tc emerged as the most worthwhile approach. This review reports some achievements about Tc produced by medical cyclotrons. In particular, the available technologies for target design, the most efficient extraction and separation procedure developed for the purification of Tc from the irradiated targets, the preparation of high purity Tc radiopharmaceuticals and the first clinical studies carried out with cyclotron produced Tc are described.
锝是诊断成像领域最常用的放射性核素，是一种用于诊断疾病、评估疾病状态和监测治疗效果的非侵入性方法。每年，锝的使用约占核医学应用的85%。这种同位素释放的伽马射线波长与传统X射线诊断设备大致相同，并且由于其半衰期短（t = 6小时），是诊断性核成像的理想选择。患者可以注射少量锝，在24小时内，几乎94%的注入放射性核素会衰变并离开身体，从而限制患者的辐射暴露。锝通常通过钼/锝放射性核素发生器系统供应给医院，在该系统中，它由母体核素钼（t = 66小时）的β衰变产生，钼是在核反应堆中通过中子裂变产生的。最近，反应堆生产的钼全球供应链的中断，迫使科学界研究锝的替代生产路线。一种解决方案是考虑以回旋加速器为基础的方法作为基于反应堆技术的潜在替代方案，核反应Mo(p,2n)Tc成为最值得采用的方法。本综述报告了医用回旋加速器生产锝的一些成果。特别是，描述了用于靶设计的现有技术、为从辐照靶中纯化锝而开发的最有效的提取和分离程序、高纯度锝放射性药物的制备以及使用回旋加速器生产的锝进行的首次临床研究。
