Standardization, decay data measurements and evaluation of ⁶⁴CU

Project Description

Copper 64 (T1/2 = 12.7 h) is a radionuclide decaying through β emission or electron capture to nickel 64, and through β- to zinc 64. This radionuclide is to be used as a radiopharmaceutical for PET imaging.
One of its interests lies on its possible association with copper 67, a β^- emitting nuclide which can be used for radio-immunotherapy applications. These two isotopes can then be linked to the same bio-marker, ensuring a perfect superposition of the PET image using copper 64 with the distribution of the drug with copper 67 inthe patient body and in the tumour to be treated.
At present, there is no international traceability established for this radionuclide through key comparisons.
Some decay data such as the β /β^- ratio, the absolute intensities of X, annihilation and gamma photons require some new determinations.
The aim of the project is then

• to create copper 64 national activity standards able to be transferred to practitioners in the medical field through secondary standards,
•  to establish their international traceability and to bring significant input to the BIPM KCDB,
•  to determine with high accuracy decay data such as branching ratios, photon emission intensities and half-life,
•  to issue an updated evaluated decay scheme, based on former published results and on those coming from the project 

Final Report 2012-02-28

The project has been completed and the report can be downloaded here>>