Radiolabelling, quality control and radiochemical purity assessment of the Octreotide analogue 68Ga DOTA NOC

Somatostatin receptors 1–5 are over expressed in neuroendocrine tumours (NETs). 68Ga-labelled [1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid]-1-Nal3-Octreotide (DOTA NOC), a recent synthesized somatostatin analogue, shows high affinity for those receptors. Herein, modifications of a commercial module for the labelling of DOTA NOC with 68Ga, as well as the assessment of time course of the radiochemical purity variation are described. The evaluation of radiochemical stability was done by two different chromatographic methods: reversed-phase radio HPLC and fast TLC analysis. Labelled compound has been found radiochemically stable within 3 h from the end of labelling (EOL) and radiochemical purity was always higher than 99%. After 73 labelling sessions the system showed great reproducibility and high radiochemical yield.