• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2005

This paper is described on the development of KOTRON-13 and recent status of PET cyclotron by commercial cyclotron companies. KIRAMS has developed medical cyclotron which is KIRAMS-13. Samyoung Unitech produces KOTRON-13 with transfered technology by KIRAMS. As a part of Regional Cyclotron Installation Protect, KOTRON-13 cyclotrons and $[18F]FDG$ production modules are being installed at regional cyclotron centers in Korea. The medical concern with radiation technology has been growing for the last several years. Early cancer diagnosis through the cyclotron and PET-CT have been brought to public attention by commercial cyclotron models in the world. The new commercial cyclotron models are introduced compact low energy cyclotrons developed by CTI, GE, Sumitomo in recent. It produces different short-lived radioisotopes, such as $[^{18}F],\;[^{11}C],\;[^{13}N]\;and\;[^{15}O]$. For the better reliability acceleration particle is proton only. The characteristics of new model cyclotrons are changed to lower energy corresponding to less 13 MeV. New models have self-shielding and low power consumption. Design criteria for the different types of commercial cyclotrons are described with reference to hospital demands.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2014

The demand of cyclotron for PET (positron emission tomography) has rapidly grown as the more use of PET or PET-CT equipment requires the increased amount of radioactive isotopes for clinical positron emission. While research on failure statistics of medical equipment used in medical centers has continued to be done, the analysis and study on failure statistics of cyclotron have rarely been conducted. However, the growing demand shows the urgency of systematical management guideline and countermeasures for device failure to minimize any supply delay of radiopharmaceuticals occurred by such failure and complains from waiting patients for PET-CT diagnosis. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the failure report from Minitrace equipped in cyclotron which is owned by the department of nuclear medicine at Yeungnam University Medical Center and draws on the data to build effective management system for cyclotron.

• 대한핵의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.11.1-11.1
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• 2003

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2015

Hypoxia has been shown in many tumors because of a reduced oxygen condition. A useful approach to detect hypoxia is to use molecular imaging. Positron emission tomography (PET), one of the biomedical molecular imaging tools, is the most common non-invasive technique for providing information about physiological and biological events such as diseases. In order to use the PET technique for healthcare, promising molecular probes such as PET tracers required. [$^{18}F$]Fluoromisonidazole ([$^{18}F$]FMISO) is the most widely used in PET tracers for hypoxia. In this review, major developments of the synthetic method of [$^{18}F$]FMISO are discussed.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3569-3573
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• 2016

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare C-11 choline and F-18 FDG PET/CT, gadoxetic-enhanced 3-T MRI and contrast-enhanced CT for diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Materials and Methods: Twelve chronic hepatitis B patients suspected of having HCC by abdominal ultrasonography received all diagnostic modalities performed within a one-week timeslot. PET/CT results were analyzed visually by two independent nuclear medicine physicians and quantitatively by tumor to background ratio (T/B). Nine patients then had histopathological confirmation. Results: Six patients had well differentiated HCC, while two and one patient(s) were noted with moderately and poorly differentiated HCC, respectively. All were detected by both CT and MRI with an average tumor size of $5.7{\pm}3.8cm$. Five patients had positive C-11 choline and F-18 FDG uptake. Of the remaining four patients, three with well differentiated HCC showed negative F-FDG uptake (one of which showed negative results by both tracers) and one patient with moderately differentiated HCC demonstrated no C-11 choline uptake despite intense F-18 FDG avidity. The overall HCC detection rates with C-11 choline and F-18 FDG were 78% and 67%, respectively, while the sensitivity of F-18 FDG for non-well differentiated HCC was 100%, compared with 83% of C-11 choline. The average T/B of C-11 choline in well-differentiated HCC patients was higher than in moderately and poorly differentiated cases (p=0.5) and vice versa with statistical significance for T/B of F-18 FDG (p = 0.02). Conclusions: Our results suggested better detection rate in C-11 choline for well differentiated HCC than F-18 FDG PET. However, the overall detection rate of PET/CT with both tracers could not compare with contrast-enhanced CT and MRI.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.37-41
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• 2016

The recent prevalence of PET examinations in Korea has led to an increase in the number of cyclotrons. The medical isotope $^{18}F$ produced in most cyclotron facilities currently operating in Korea is emitted into the environment during the production of [$^{18}F$]FDG, a cancerdiagnosis reagent. The amount of [$^{18}F$]FDG synthesized determines the radioactive concentration of $^{18}F$ in the exhaust. At some facilities, this amount temporarily exceeds the emission limit. In this study, we evaluated the $^{18}F$ radioactivity concentration in the exhaust from the cyclotron facility at Chosun University. The $^{18}F$ radioactivity concentration was measured using an air sampler and a HPGe semiconductor detector. The measurements showed that the radioactive concentration of $^{18}F$ in the exhaust at the cyclotron facility at Chosun University was the highest during [$^{18}F$]FDG synthesis but remained under the legal limit of $2,000Bq\;m^{-3}$.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.4071-4075
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• 2016

Background: FDG PET/CT is at an equivocal stage to recommend for staging of colorectal cancer as compared to contrast-enhanced CT (ceCT). This study was intended to evaluate the value of FDG PET/ceCT in colorectal cancer staging as compared to ceCT alone. Materials and Methods: PET/ceCT was performed for 61 colorectal cancer patients who were prospectively enrolled in the study. Three patients were excluded due to loss to follow-up. PET/ceCT findings and ceCT results alone were read separately. The treatment planning was then determined by tumor board consensus. The criteria for T staging were determined by the findings of ceCT. Nodal positive by PET/ceCT imaging was determined by visual analysis of FDG uptake greater than regional background blood pool activity. The diagnostic accuracy of T and N staging was determined only in patients who received surgery without any neoadjuvant treatment. Results: Of 58 patients, there were 40 with colon cancers including sigmoid cancers and 18 with rectal cancers. PET/ceCT in pre-operative staging detected bone metastasis and metastatic inguinal lymph nodes (M1a) that were undepicted on CT in 2 patients (3%), clearly defined 19 equivocal lesions on ceCT in 18 patients (31%) and excluded 6 metastatic lesions diagnosed by ceCT in 6 patients (10%). These resulted in alteration of management plan in 15 out of the 58 cases (26%) i.e. changing from chemotherapy to surgery (4), changing extent of surgery (9) and avoidance of futile surgery (2). Forty four patients underwent surgery within 45 days after PET/CT. The diagnostic accuracy for N staging with PET/ceCT and ceCT alone was 66% and 48% with false positive rates of 24% (6/25) and 76% (19/25) and false negative rates of 47% (9/19) and 21% (4/19), respectively. All of the false negative lymph nodes from PET/ceCT were less than a centimeter in size and located in peri-lesional regions. The diagnostic accuracy for T staging was 82%. The sensitivity of the peri-lesional fat stranding sign in determining T3 stage was 94% and the specificity was 54%. Conclusions: Our study suggested promising roles of PET/ceCT in initial staging of colorectal cancer with better diagnostic accuracy facilitating management planning.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.91-96
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• 2005

O-(3-[$^{18}$F]Fluoropropyl)-L-tyrosine (L-[$^{18}$F]FPT) was synthesized by nucleophilic radiofluorination followed by acidic hydrolysis of protective groups and evaluated with 9 L tumor bearing rat. L-[$^{18}$F]FPT is an homologue of O-(2-[$^{18}$F]fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (L-[$^{18}$F]FET) which recently is studied as a tracer for tumor imaging using positron emission tomography (PET). [$^{18}$F]FPT was directly prepared from the precursor of O-(3-ptoluenesulfonyloxypropyl)- N-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-L-tyrosine methyl ester. FPT-PET image was obtained at 60 min in 9 L tumor bearing rats. The radiochemical yield of [$^{18}$F]FPT was 0-45% (decay corrected) and the radiochemical purity was more than 95% after HPLC purification. The total time elapsed for the synthesis of [$^{18}$F]FPT was 100 min from EOB (End-of-bombardment). A comparison of uptake studies between [$^{18}$F]FPT and [$^{18}$F]FET was performed. In biodistribution, [$^{18}$F]FPT showed similar pattern with [$^{18}$F]FET in various tissues, but [$^{18}$F]FPT showed low uptake in brain. Furthermore, [$^{18}$F]FPT showed higher tumor-to-brain ratio than [$^{18}$F]FET. In conclusion, [$^{18}$F]FPT seems to be more useful amino acid tracer than [$^{18}$F]FET for brain tumors imaging with PET.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2016

The translocator protein (TSPO) has attracted scientist's attention for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging due to correlation with brain cancer, stroke, and neurodegeneration. Recently, GE-180, a novel tricyclic derivative has been developed as a new high affinity agent for the TSPO and evaluated to confirm a possibility for the TSPO ligand. In this highlight review, several studies for the novel TSPO radiotracer are described.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.489-494
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• 2016

Nuclear reaction which occurs in the cyclotron generate unnecessary neutrons. The results of this happening can radioactivate surrounding materials and radioactive materials cause radiation exposure. When people take radioactive air, it makes internal exposure. The purpose of this study was to analyze the radioactive air inside of the ultra-compact 16.5 MeV cyclotron in operation. As a result of study, the radio activation occurred by compact cyclotron generates a very low internal exposure to workers. Comparing the radioactivity from radioactive nuclide with legal standard, that was under reference value. However, it could be at risk for internal exposure in case of higher energy cyclotron. Therefore, legal standard is needed for ventilation equipment of radiation facilities.