A Compact in-House Multi-Particle Cyclotron for Production of Radionuclides and Labeled Compounds for Medical Use

Abstract

The Sloan-Kettering cyclotron located with covered access to two large hospitals, Memorial Hospital for Cancer and the New York Hospital, can accelerate deuterons to 8 MeV, protons and He-4 ions to 15 MeV and He-3 iohs to 23 MeV. A large number of radionuclides can be produced with these four particles and many compounds of physiological significance may be labeled. Methods will be described for the production of 15O as O2, CO and CO2 11C as CO, CO2, HCN, and other precursors for organic synthesis; 13N as N2, NO3-, NH4+ and 13N-labeled L-amino acids; 18F as NaF; 52Fe as ferrous citrate; 38K as KC1. Yields will be discussed, as well as the uses to which these radio indicators are put. The use of radioisotopes carbon-11, nitrogen-13 and fluorine-18 enables one to label compounds of true physiological or biochemical significance, and the concurrent development of instrumentation to quantitatively detect the localization of such compounds in the human body offers the opportunity to study phenomena heretofore impossible in the intact human, in a safe, non-invasive way. Examples of compounds which can be studied in this way are hormones, e.g. estradiol, for detection of breast cancer, amino acids for the detection of protein synthesis in tumors and the pancreas, precursors of DNA and RNA for the detection of abnormal cell growth, drugs related to neural disorders, e.g. haloperidol in schizophrenia.