Reliability and reproducibility of N-[11C]methyl-choline and L-(S-methyl-[11C])methionine solid-phase synthesis: a useful and suitable method in clinical practice.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: N-[11C]methyl-choline ([11C]choline) and L-(S-methyl-[11C])methionine ([11C]methionine) are PET radiopharmaceuticals which have gained interest as oncological tracers. The increasing demand of these radiopharmaceuticals needs robust methods of synthesis with high and reproducible yield which provide enough activity for multiple patient administration in a short synthesis time. METHODS: Different synthetic approaches have been described in the literature but exhaustive reports on performance and reliability of different methods have not been described yet. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: In the present study, we demonstrated the reliability and reproducibility of the solid-phase [11C]methylation method for the synthesis of [11C]choline and [11C]methionine as a suitable tool for the routine clinical use.