Accelerating Nuclear Medicine Ⅱ

2026-05-17

From FDG to Multi-Isotope Production Platforms

🔬 For many years, F-18 FDG has been the most widely used PET radiopharmaceutical.

It plays an important role in oncology, neurology, cardiology and infection imaging, and has become a routine tracer in many PET centers around the world.

However, nuclear medicine is no longer limited to FDG.

🧬 With the development of precision medicine and theranostics, clinical demand is moving toward a broader range of radiopharmaceuticals.

Different diseases, targets and diagnostic purposes may require different radionuclides and tracers. This shift is driving radiopharmaceutical production from a single-tracer model toward a multi-isotope production platform.

⚛️ Different radionuclides have different physical and clinical characteristics.

For example, half-life affects production timing, quality control and distribution radius. Positron energy can influence PET imaging resolution. Production route determines the required target system, facility conditions and operational workflow.

Therefore, isotope selection is not only a scientific question. It is also closely related to clinical demand, production capacity, site planning and regulatory requirements.

🏗️ In this context, a future-ready cyclotron-based platform should be flexible enough to support different production strategies.

Depending on the project needs, this may involve liquid targets, gas targets, solid targets, synthesis modules, dispensing systems, quality control equipment and radiation protection design.

📌 The key question for hospitals and radiopharmaceutical producers is no longer simply:

“Can we produce FDG?”

It is:

“Can our production platform support future clinical and isotope development needs?”

At LBT, we believe that a cyclotron-based solution should be designed with both current routine production and future expansion in mind. A reliable platform should combine stable beam performance, configurable target systems, integrated radiochemistry workflow and long-term technical support.

Actual configuration should be determined based on isotope portfolio, expected production capacity, clinical applications, site conditions, regulatory requirements and project implementation planning.

➡️ As nuclear medicine continues to evolve, multi-isotope production capability will become an important foundation for PET imaging, radiopharmaceutical innovation and theranostic development.