Direct Technetium radiopharmaceuticals production using a 30MeV Cyclotron

Background and purpose of the study: Technetium-99m is the major radionuclide used in the world and mainly is provided by fission product. However extensive research has been conducted on the use of accelerators for production of 99mTc. This investigation reports the production of 99mTc radioisotope using cyclotrons followed by the preparation, quality control and biodistribution studies of four major Tc-radiopharmaceuticals. The high purity molybdenum natural target (130mg/cm2) was irradiated in a Cyclone 30 accelerator using 160 µA of 25 MeV proton beam energy for 1000 µA-h. After dissolution, the technetium radionuclides were extracted using methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) followed by preparation of Tc-MIBI, Tc-DTPA, Tc-DMSA and Tc-phytate as radiopharmaceutical samples. The results of quality controls and animal biodistribution studies showed successful production of Tc radionuclides (including 99mTc) in the bombarded target and subsequent labelling of the kit with Tc. The developed high power Mo target if constructed using enriched 100Mo, could be a practical method for large-scale production of 99mTc and promising as an alternative to fission product 99Mo-99mTc generators for local applications near cyclotron facilities.