Routine Production of [18F]F2 from 11 MeV Proton-Only Cyclotron and Its Use for the Synthesis of 18F-Tracers for Heart and Brain

Although an increasing number of PET centres are using small proton-only cyclotrons for routine production of 18F-labelled radiopharmaceuticals, only a few reports1,2,3 have been published on the routine production of electrophilic fluorine using the 18O(p,n)18F reaction. Nickels et al.4 first reported a “one-shoot” and a “two-shoot” method to produce [18F]F2 from 18O-gas target. The “two-shoot” method is highly attractive because it allows quantitative recovery of 18O-gas from the target. In this paper we report our experiences during the first year of operation, using a Siemens RDS 112 (11 MeV proton-cyclotron), with the “two-shoot” approach to the routine production of [18F]F2 for radiopharmaceutical synthesis.