ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights several aspects related to the production and application of PET-radiopharmaceuticals, including available radionuclides, PET-radiochemistry, uptake mechanisms, and currently available PET-radiopharmaceuticals in brain, oncology, cardiology, and inflammation/infection for human studies. Focus is put on 11C, 18F, 68Ga and 89Zr-radiopharmaceuticals. A substantial number of PET-radiopharmaceuticals have proven its clinical value with [18F]FDG being the real workhorse tracer for PET.
The number of radiopharmaceuticals used in humans is continuously growing with a tendency to shift from 11C- to 18F-radiopharmaceuticals enabling transportation to PET sites without a cyclotron and radiochemistry lab. In addition, 89Zr-radiolabelled monoclonal antibodies are increasingly used in oncology.
Besides the increasing number of radiopharmaceuticals, the production methods also improve and expand. For production of 11C-radiopharmaceuticals, the 11C-methylation route is the most used method, but some other routes, including use of [11C]CO, become more easily available. For 18F-production, several late-stage 18F-fluorination procedures have progressed enormously.
