Radiochemical methodology constitutes the most important base for the
successful functioning of a PET group in the routine production and
development of radiopharmaceuticals. Of the several hundred products
which have been labelled with positron emitters during the past two
decades about 35 are presently considered to be of major interest. The
time for a state-of-the-art review is right, since this field has
advanced over the past fifteen years to reach a level where guidelines
can now be suggested. Chapters of this book deal with each of the main
methodological aspects of the chemistry needed to develop an effective
radiopharmaceutical, namely radionuclide production, automation and
metabolite analysis. A further chapter on QA/QC is written by a
broadly-based expert group and is meant to provide a guideline and a
base for future monographs and regulations on major PET
radiopharmaceuticals of today.
This book will help the increasing numbers of scientists who are now
entering the field of PET to appreciate the methodological aspects that
are normally addressed by chemists in relation to PET
radiopharmaceuticals; it provides many useful practical guidelines and
will promote early success in their own endeavours, since these will
often necessarily begin by establishing chemical methodology of the kind
discussed here.