Radiochemical aspects in modern radiopharmaceutical trends: a practical guide

ABSTRACT

Radiochemical separation and purification play an important role in the production and synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals in modern nuclear medicine. Several important criteria that need to be considered when choosing appropriate radiochemical separation methods are discussed in the present work. This review is designed to give an overview of important aspects of radiochemical separation for medical radionuclides and to bridge it with their production and chelation. Several important parameters, such as radionuclidic and radiochemical purity, specific activity are discussed. With this review, the authors would like to stress the importance of radiochemistry for radiopharmaceutical science, as it is very often underestimated.

KEYWORDS:

• Radiochemical separation
• radiochemical and radionuclidic purity
• specific activity
• radiopharmaceuticals
• nuclear medicine
• targeted radionuclide imaging and therapy

Acknowledgments

TRIUMF receives funding via a contribution agreement with the National Research Council of Canada. We thanks program for graduate and postgraduate students in the framework of collaboration between JINR laboratories, JINR Member States and the Czech scientific institutions. Thanks to Meelad Sakheie and Keiran Maskell for language editing and proofreading.