MANUFACTURING OF RADIOPHARMACEUTICAL ISOTOPES THROUGH THE LINAC 7 ACCELERATOR FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Linac 7 consists of a new generation linear proton accelerator completely designed and built at the Beam Laboratory (IZPILab-Beam Laboratory) of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU. One of the most important health applications conceived within the Linac 7 project is the production of pharmaceuticals of various species, locally around large clinical centers. Currently, medical radioisotopes are manufactured externally to hospitals and involve the use of distant, expensive and complex infrastructures. This results in long transports, production of large doses of radioisotopes that decay rapidly over the several hours of transport, and also usually only elements with sufficient half-life for use as appropriate pharmaceuticals can be used, with no other options. Our compact Linac 7 linear accelerator allows the manufacture of multiple types of radioisotopes locally and tailored to the corresponding biomedical needs, including specific doses of pharmaceuticals for patients, on demand of the medical staff in our hospitals. Keywords: Particle accelerators, radiopharmacy, nuclear medicine