A simple Cu-64 production and its application of Cu-64 ATSM

One of the positron emission radionuclides, 64Cu, has been reported to be a particularly effective radioisotope in PET imaging study. This utility of 64Cu depends on the chemical stability in water with proper energy and half-life as γ-emitters.Hence, we tried to develop a simple method for producing this isotope using an old cyclotron model in our site (50 MeV, Scantronics co.). In particular, we designed the equipments of enrich 64Ni plating system and radioactive 64Cu separation using plastic cartridge column; 64Ni plating system on gold foil which located in the 13° angle target toward beam irradiation. For the nuclear reaction of 64Cu, it was applied to 64Ni(p, n) 64Cu at low energy under the degrader composed of Al and Ta foils. After beam irradiation, 64Cu was identified by multichannel analyzer installed for a HPGe detector and its utility was certified by the microPET images of 64Cu-ATSM (CT-26 tumor bearing mouse as reported previously). The image quality of 64Cu was also very similar to that of 18F radioisotope in microPET scanner. In conclusion, a method of 64Cu production and its application was successfully established in old cyclotron having high energy.