Development and long-term evaluation of a new Ge/Ga generator based on nano-SnO for PET imaging.

Radionuclide generator systems can routinely provide radionuclides on demand such as Ga produced by a Ge/Ga generator without the availability of an on-site accelerator or a research reactor. Thus, in this work nano-SnO was used to develop a new Ge/Ga generator which was evaluated over a period of 17 months and 305 elution cycles. The elution yield was 91.1 ± 1.8% in the first 7 mL (1 M HCl as eluent) when the generator was new and then it decreased with time and use to 73.8 ± 1.9%. Around 80% of the elutable Ga activity was obtained in 1 mL and the Ge content in the eluate did not exceed 1 × 10% over the investigation period when it was eluted regularly. The described generator provided adequate results for radiolabelling of DOTA-TOC with direct use of eluate. In addition, [Ga]Ga-DOTA-TOC was tested satisfactorily for in vivo tumor detection by microPET/CT imaging in a lung cancer mouse model.