A Novel Method for 67Cu Production

Copper-67 is one of the important therapeutic radionuclides. It is a ß- emitter with half-live of 61.9 h. In addition it emits main 91, 93 and 185 keV ¿ peaks and is therefore also suitable for SPECT imaging. Recently it was shown that 67Cu has superior therapeutic effects over 64Cu, 125I and 131I and is a radionuclide of preference for targeted radio-immunotherapy. The main limitation factor however is still the lack in the Copper-67 supply. We report a novel method of production of 67Cu by deuteron irradiation of enriched 70Zn target, where the 70Zn(d,an)67Cu reaction takes place. The calculated maximum of the excitation function is reached at about 20 MeV and overall usable deuteron energy region lies between 10 and 30 MeV. The thick target yield at deuteron energy of 20 MeV is estimated to 2.6 MBq/µAh (70 µCi/µAh) and a saturation yield to 235 MBq/µA (6.35 mCi/µA) at EOB. Typical irradiation (12 h, 25 µA) should produce some 740 MBq (20mCi) of 67Cu. High specific activity 67Cu can be therefore produced in relevant quantities by this method.

KOZEMPEL Jan;  ABBAS Kamel;  GIBSON Peter;  HOLZWARTH Uwe;  SIMONELLI Federica; 

2010-10-20

ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC

JRC58690

0969-8051,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC58690,   

10.1016/j.nucmedbio.2010.04.159,