TECHNOLOGY BRIEF

ACCELERATOR TARGET FOR PRODUCING RADIOISOTOPES USING LOW ENERGY, HIGH CURRENT PARTICLE BEAMS

For further information, contact Lori-Anne Neiger

Description: An accelerator target specifically configured for use with low energy, high current particle beams, such as those produced by a linear accelerator or cyclotron, that can be used for producing radioisotopes. The radioisotopes can then be used to label radiopharmaceuticals for use in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) procedures.

Commercial and Technical Merit: Advances in PET technology have made clinical procedures using PET radiotracers highly desirable additions to Nuclear Medicine Departments in major hospitals. In less than ten years, the number of PET Centers has more than doubled, and there are currently more than 260 centers world-wide. These numbers should continue to grow, especially in the United States where medical insurance coverage of PET procedures continues to increase.

The radioisotopes used in PET are produced using expensive accelerators that emit a particle beam to react with a material sample contained within the accelerator target producing the radioisotope. Typically, a cyclotron is used to produce a high-energy proton beam that is steered to the target sample for producing a nuclear reaction to generate the desired radioisotope. The high-energy proton beam requires a high power accelerator for its production. The resulting proton beam is usually utilized with a low beam current of approximately 10-20 microamps on the target. However, this design makes it possible to produce the radioisotopes using a low energy beam of about 8 MeV because the target can withstand much higher beam currents. This target can withstand a relatively high beam current of approximately 80-100 microamps in the target for producing the radioisotope.

Competitive Advantage: This target can be used with either a cyclotron or a lower energy linear accelerator. It is best suited to utilization of lower energy, high beam current targetry. It is less expensive to produce a low energy proton beam with a linear accelerator than it is to produce a high energy proton beam using a cyclotron. Additionally, the use of a linear accelerator versus a cyclotron greatly reduces the amount of expensive, radioactive shielding that is required. This target allows the use of higher beam currents and as a result, more radioisotope can be made than with a traditional target. Therefore, the cost of producing radioisotopes can be reduced using this target. Finally, the space requirements for a linear accelerator-based radioisotope production system are less than those required for a cyclotron-based system. The combined reductions in cost and space requirements could lead to an increase in the availability of this valuable medical imaging technique as PET centers are installed in smaller hospitals that have greater financial constraints than the large hospitals that typically house PET centers.

Inventors: David J. Schlyer, Richard A. Ferrieri and Conrad Koehler

Patent Status: U.S. Patent 5,917,874

License Status: Available non-exclusively