LABORATORI NAZIONALI DI LEGNARO
Nuclear medicine has been playing an important role in the noninvasive diagnosis and therapy of various diseases. In fact, 25-30 million diagnostic procedures in the world (about 0.9 million in Japan) are carried out every year using 99mTc (T1/2 = 6 h) eluted from a 99Mo/99mTc generator. Therefore, a constant supply of 99Mo (T1/2 = 66 h) is the key issue to ensure the routine application of 99mTc. Japan imports all of its required 99Mo. The current production chain of 99Mo produced by the fission reaction of 235U, however, is fragile. Developments of sustainable alternative methods for producing 99Mo without using highly enriched 235U are expected not only by medical doctors but also by citizens. As for a therapeutic radionuclide, 67Cu (T1/2 = 63 h) is considered to be a promising radionuclide for theranostics, since it emits -rays suitable for SPECT imaging and -rays to kill targeted cancer cells. 64Cu (T1/2 = 13 h) used for PET and 67Cu are theragnostic radionuclide pairs, suitable to do personalized medicine. Establishing a proper production method for 67Cu is a longstanding problem. We proposed new routes to produce 99Mo and 67Cu by the 100Mo(n,2n)99Mo and 68Zn(n,n'p+d)67Cu reactions, respectively, using only accelerator neutrons. In this seminar the results of the quality control tests of 99mTc pertechnetate solution obtained from 99Mo and the biodistribution of 67CuCl2 in colorectal tumor-bearing mice will be presented.

DATA: 18-06-2018