SUMITOMO HEAVY INDUSTRIES TECHNICAL REVIEW

Development of Miniature Module for [11C] Methionine Synthesis

Toshimitsu WATANABE, Hiroshi ARAYA and Satoshi UENO

[18F] FDG-PET has spread rapidly in the cancer diagnosis. On the other hand, [11C] Methionine is paid attention as one of the PET drugs that may help cancer diagnosis by [18F] FDG. Due to its short half-life, repeated preparations of [11C] Methionine, two or three times a day, are generally required for the routine PET practice. Although the automatic synthesis devices for [11C] Methionine were developed, it was difficult to supply [11C] Methionine two times a day or more. We developed a methionine synthesis system that was able to supply [11C] Methionine two times a day or more, and a new methionine synthesis unit. The new synthesis unit is able to synthesize [11C] Methionine efficiently without HPLC preparation and evaporation in a short time. The new methionine synthesis unit and system are more useful for the routine synthesis of [11C] Methionine.