Accelerator Production of Cu-64 for Pet and Radiotherapy

Our goal is to develop an efficient technique for the production of high specific activity copper-6biomedical accelerators. Copper-64 (t 1/2 = 12.7 hr.) is an intermediate half-life positron emittingbeen shown to be a useful radiotracer for positron emission tomography (PET) as well as a promisingthe treatment of colorectal cancer. Copper-64 is currently reactor-produced and, because this radionproduced at a small number of reactor facilities, its availability is extremely limited. We will devradioisotope target and separation system which will allow the production of clinically useful quantconventional PET cyclotrons as well as with the low energy linear accelerators which have recently bPET. Copper-64 will be produced by the 64Ni(p,n) reaction. In Phase I, the optimum target irradiatiodetermined, and techniques will be developed for the separation and purification of high specific acrecovery of the nickel-64 target material. These studies will lead to the design of a self-containedaccelerator production and purification of copper-64 in the quantities required for imaging and radi