Abstract

Gallium-68 is a positron-emitting nuclide that has recently achieved clinical acceptance as the diagnostic radionuclide in PET tracers used for theranostic studies of lutetium-177 labeled therapeutic drugs due to the ease of access provided by germanium-68/gallium-68 generators. An alternative method of production currently being explored uses accelerators to form gallium-68 directly. This review of gallium-68 production strategies discusses available accelerator targetry at a range of beam energies and intensities, the many radiochemical separation techniques available to isolate Ga-68 from irradiated targets, isotopically enriched target material recovery, and the implications of these techniques for downstream radiolabeling applications.

Keywords: Radiochemical, PET, therapeutic molecule, gallium-68, radiochemistry, Lu-177 labeled.

Graphical Abstract