Study of radiopharmaceuticals for nuclear medicine

Nuclear medicine has been a rapidly evolving discipline since the rise of PET and SPECT imaging techniques in the 2000s. France currently has more than two hundred nuclear medicine departments that use radionuclides for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes in various disciplines: oncology, cardiology, neurology or endocrinology. The regulatory constraints for the use of these products and the radiation protection rules to be applied for both patients and caregivers require precise knowledge of the radionuclides used.

The study conducted at the LNHB includes the following components:
– Study of identified radionuclides to improve knowledge of their fundamental data. Thus, the LNHB carries out measurements for this purpose and assesses them,
– Improvement of traceability to the SI for these radionuclides by carrying out the necessary dedicated studies and key international comparisons,
– Enhanced opportunities for connecting nuclear medicine services by increasing the number of radiopharmaceuticals measurable with very high accuracy and connecting secondary laboratories in charge of hospital site calibrations,
– Development of a specific primary measuring instrument for the metrological connection of devices using very short half-life radionuclides (e.g. ¹¹C, ¹⁵O or ¹³N) produced as close as possible to their place of use, and for radionuclides not measurable in ionization chambers. This component involves the study and development of a transportable primary instrument to overcome these obstacles, and a transfer instrument other than an activimeter adapted to pure beta emitters, usable by operators of nuclear medicine services.

COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS::
Metrology for clinical implementation of dosimetry in molecular radiotherapy: MRTDosimetry
Website: EURAMET MRTDosimetry project

COLLABORATIONS:
– Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM)
http://kcdb.bipm.org/default_fr.asp
– Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot (IMIV – UMR 1023 Inserm/CEA/Université Paris Sud – ERL 9218 CNRS)
http://i2bm.cea.fr/drf/i2bm/Pages/SHFJ.aspx
– AREVA NP-LEA
Website: http://www.lea-cerca.com/fr/areva-lea-cerca.html
– ESPRIMED
http://esprimed.net/
– CEMHTI (CNRS / CEMHTI Site cyclotron)
Website: http://www.cemhti.cnrs-orleans.fr/

REFERENCES:
– M-M. Bé et al., Standardization, decay data measurements and evaluation of ⁶⁴Cu, (2012) Applied Radiation and Isotopes 70, 1894–1899
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2012.02.056
– M.A. Kellett, ¹⁷⁷Lu: DDEP Evaluation of the decay scheme for an emerging radiopharmaceutical, Applied Radiation and Isotopes, (2016) Appl Radiat Isot., 109:129-32.
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.11.057