LARAMED: A Laboratory for Radioisotopes of Medical Interest

Abstract

The widespread availability of novel radioactive isotopes showing nuclear characteristics suitable for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in nuclear medicine (NM) has experienced a great development in the last years, particularly as a result of key advancements of cyclotron-based radioisotope production technologies. At Legnaro National Laboratories of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (LNL-INFN), Italy, a 70-MeV high current cyclotron has been recently installed. This cyclotron will be dedicated not only to pursuing fundamental nuclear physics studies, but also to research related to other scientific fields with an emphasis on medical applications. LARAMED project was established a few years ago at LNL-INFN as a new research line aimed at exploiting the scientific power of nuclear physics for developing innovative applications to medicine. The goal of this program is to elect LNL as a worldwide recognized hub for the development of production methods of novel medical radionuclides, still unavailable for the scientific and clinical community. Although the research facility is yet to become fully operative, the LARAMED team has already started working on the cyclotron production of conventional medical radionuclides, such as Tc-99m, and on emerging radionuclides of high potential medical interest, such as Cu-67, Sc-47, and Mn-52.

Keywords: Cyclotrons; medical radioisotopes; radiopharmaceuticals; targets.

Figure 1

Aerial photo of the INFN-LNL area (left) and a zoom on the SPES building (right).

Figure 2

The new high-energy (70 MeV) and high-current (750 µA) proton-beam cyclotron installed at LNL-INFN (Legnaro). One of the two main switching magnets may be seen on the right.

Figure 3

The layout of the SPES building (underground level) showing the cyclotron with outward beam-lines. In evidence, the LARAMED section (colored in blue) comprising four bunkers (RI#1, RI#2, RI#3, A9c). This area is divided in two separate sections: The Radioisotopes Laboratory (RILAB) and the Radioisotope Factory laboratory (RIFAC). On the other side, the SPES bunkers (colored in gray) are dedicated to the production of neutron-rich unstable nuclei for research in fundamental nuclear physics and astro-physics, as well as for radioisotopes production using the Isotope Separator On-Line (ISOL) technique.

Figure 4

The layout of the LARAMED laboratories at the second floor of the SPES building.

Figure 5

Schematic representation of the tasks accomplished within the APOTEMA and TECHN-OSP projects.

Figure 6

Schematic picture of the proposed “hub and spoke” approach for in-hospital cyclotron-^99mTc production. The green arrows represent the distribution of ready-to-use ¹⁰⁰Mo targets produced by the hub-lab; the black arrows represent the used enriched target material returned from the hospitals to the hub-lab.

Figure 7

Schematic description with photographs of the key steps of the radiochemical separation process developed for the COME project.

Figure 8

Photograph of a typical stacked-foils target of the PASTA project.

Figure 9

HIVIPP deposition system: (a) 3D general scheme; (b) photo of the deposition chamber: Substrates attached to the two high voltage electrodes in parallel and powders contained by the quartz cylinder in between; (c) photo of the working system.