ABSTRACT
320The radiometals are of particular interest for radiopharmaceutical development due to their wide range of nuclear properties such as half-life, type of radioactive decay, and rich coordination chemistry. In recent years, the number of novel target-specific radiotracers introduced to clinical practice is growing rapidly. This is not only due to the introduction of novel tumour targeting molecules but also due to the increasing availability of radionuclides, both for diagnostic imaging in PET and SPECT and for therapy. This chapter presents the radiometals which currently find application in nuclear medicine, their chemical and radiation characteristics, production methods and strategies allowing their incorporation into radiopharmaceuticals as well as future trends in the development of radiometals into medically useful tracers.
