This study analyzes the maintenance and common faults of GE MINItrace Qilin medical cyclotron, and studies three kinds of the machine's faults.
Cyclotrons

OBJECTIVE: To compare the performance of the GE cyclotron MINItrace system before and after the upgrade. METHODS: The upgrade of the MINItrace system included replacing the silver target with the Nb syetem and adopting the latest RF control and management system and lastest ion source system.The failrue rate and production efficiency were retrospectively analyzed before and after the upgrade. RESULTS: After the upgrade, the cyclotron failure rate decreased by 86.2%, the average capacity increased by 45%. CONCLUSIONS After the upgrade of MINItrace cyclotron, the failure rate is sharply reduced, and the production efficiency is grately improved.
Cyclotrons/standards* ; Equipment Failure ; Retrospective Studies

BACKGROUND AND CURRENT STATUS OF THERANOSTICS: Therapeutic nuclear medicine (NM) in Bangladesh began in the early 1980s with the application of radioactive iodine for treatment of thyroid cancer and primary hyperthyroidism. Since then, NM practice has remarkably developed in the country with the advancement of instrumentation, radiopharmacy, and information technology. The government took the initiative to establish four PET-CTcenters at different NMcenters, including one at the National Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (NINMAS). A further development is the installation of a cyclotron center (18-MeV cyclotron) at NINMAS by the government's fund. Currently, NM is providing good health services to oncology patients throughout the country. More than 20 NM centers are functioning in different parts of the country, and therapeutic NM has an important place. However, conventional radioactive iodine still remains the major theranostic application.CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVE: The expansion and development of therapeutic NM for other cancers have been limited due to a number of challenging factors. A brief overview of the history and current status ofNMin Bangladesh is presented here with an examination of factors that pose as obstacles to the introduction and development of new therapeutic technologies. Finally, future perspectives are discussed with ways to mitigate existing problems and challenges.
Bangladesh ; Cyclotrons ; Financial Management ; Health Services ; Humans ; Hyperthyroidism ; Iodine ; Nuclear Medicine ; Theranostic Nanomedicine ; Thyroid Neoplasms

The foundations of nuclear medicine in Vietnam were established from 1970. Until now, after 48 years of development, in Vietnam, we have some basic equipment including 31 SPECT, 4 SPECT/CT machines, 11 PET/CT scanners, five cyclotrons, and one nuclear reactor.Many nuclearmedicine techniques in diagnosis and treatment have been routinely performed at provincial and central level health facilities such as tumor scintigraphy, thyroid scintigraphy, bone scintigraphy, kidney scintigraphy, cardiac scintigraphy, and radio-isotope therapy with I-131 and P-32. Selective internal radiation therapy with Y-90 microsphere and I-125 radioactive seed implantation has been also successfully applied in some big hospitals. However, there are still many difficulties for Vietnam as the lack of new widely used radioisotopes such as Ga-67, Cu-64, Samarium-153, and Lutetium-177 and the lack of nuclear medicine specialists. In the future, we are putting our efforts on the applications of new isotopes in diagnosis and treatment of cancers (theranostic) like Ga-68-DOTATATE, Lutetium-177-DOTATATE, Ga-68-PSMA, and Lutetium-177-PSMA, equipping modern nuclear medicine diagnostic tools, strengthening the human resources training in nuclear medicine. At the same time, we are trying our best to strengthen the cooperation with international nuclear medicine societies in over the world.
Cyclotrons ; Diagnosis ; Foundations ; Health Facilities ; Humans ; Isotopes ; Kidney ; Microspheres ; Nuclear Medicine ; Positron-Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography ; Radioisotopes ; Radionuclide Imaging ; Specialization ; Theranostic Nanomedicine ; Thyroid Gland ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon ; Vietnam

OBJECTIVE: To provide useful information for the further production and application of this novel radio-nuclide for potential clinical application. METHODS: ¹²⁴Te (p,n) ¹²⁴I nuclide reaction was used for the ¹²⁴I production. Firstly, the target material, ¹²⁴TeO₂ (200 mg) and Al2O3 (30 mg) mixture, were compressed into the round platinum based solid target by tablet device. HM-20 medical cyclotron was applied to irradiate the solid target slice for 6-10 h with helium and water cooling. Then, the radiated solid target was placed for 12 h (overnight) to decay the radioactive impurity; finally, ¹²⁴I was be purified by dry distillation using 1 mL/min nitrogen for about 6 hours and radiochemical separation methods. Micro-PET imaging studies were performed to investigate the metabolism properties and thyroid imaging ability of ¹²⁴I.After 740 kBq ¹²⁴I was injected intravenously into the tail vein of the normal mice, the animals were imaged with micro-PET and infused with CT. The micro-PET/CT infusion imaging revealed actual state ¹²⁴I's metabolism in the mice. RESULTS: It was been successfully applied for 200 mg ¹²⁴TeO₂ plating by the tablet device on the surface of platinum. It showed smooth, dense surface and without obviously pits and cracks. The enriched ¹²⁴Te target was irradiated for 6 to 10 hours at about 12.0 MeV with 20 μA current on HM-20 cyclotron. Then 370-1 110 MBq ¹²⁴I could be produced on the solid target after irradiation and 370-740 MBq high specific activity could be collected afterdry distillation separation and radio-chemical purification.¹²⁴I product was finally dissolved in 0.01 mol/L NaOH for the future distribution. The gamma spectrum of the produced ¹²⁴I-solution showed that radionuclide purity was over 80.0%. The micro-PET imaging of ¹²⁴I in the normal mice exhibited the thyroid and stomach accumulations and kidney metabolism, the bladder could also be clearly visible, which was in accordance with what was previously reported. To the best of our knowledge, it was the first production of ¹²⁴I report in China. CONCLUSION In this study, the preparation of ¹²⁴TeO₂ solid target was successfully carried out by using the tablet device. After irradiation of the ¹²⁴TeO₂ solid target and radio-chemical purification, we successfully produced 370-740 MBq high specific activity ¹²⁴I by a cyclotron for biomedical application, and micro-PET imaging of ¹²⁴I in normal mice exhibited the thyroid accumulations. Also, slight uptake in stomach were also monitored with almost nonuptake in other organs in the micro-PET imaging. The production of ¹²⁴I is expected to provide a new solid target radionuclide for the scientific research and potential clinical application of our country.
Animals ; China ; Cyclotrons ; Iodine Radioisotopes/standards* ; Mice ; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography ; Quality Control ; Radiochemistry ; Radiopharmaceuticals/standards* ; Thyroid Gland/diagnostic imaging* ; Tomography, Emission-Computed

PURPOSE: The purpose of this report is to describe the proton therapy system at Samsung Medical Center (SMC-PTS) including the proton beam generator, irradiation system, patient positioning system, patient position verification system, respiratory gating system, and operating and safety control system, and review the current status of the SMC-PTS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The SMC-PTS has a cyclotron (230 MeV) and two treatment rooms: one treatment room is equipped with a multi-purpose nozzle and the other treatment room is equipped with a dedicated pencil beam scanning nozzle. The proton beam generator including the cyclotron and the energy selection system can lower the energy of protons down to 70 MeV from the maximum 230 MeV. RESULTS: The multi-purpose nozzle can deliver both wobbling proton beam and active scanning proton beam, and a multi-leaf collimator has been installed in the downstream of the nozzle. The dedicated scanning nozzle can deliver active scanning proton beam with a helium gas filled pipe minimizing unnecessary interactions with the air in the beam path. The equipment was provided by Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd., RayStation from RaySearch Laboratories AB is the selected treatment planning system, and data management will be handled by the MOSAIQ system from Elekta AB. CONCLUSION: The SMC-PTS located in Seoul, Korea, is scheduled to begin treating cancer patients in 2015.
Cyclotrons ; Helium ; Humans ; Korea* ; Metallurgy ; Particle Accelerators ; Patient Positioning ; Proton Therapy* ; Protons* ; Radiation Oncology ; Respiratory System ; Seoul

Proton therapy facility, which is recently installed at National Cancer Center in Korea, generally produces a large amount of radiation near cyclotron due to the secondary particles and radioisotopes caused by collision between proton and nearby materials during the acceleration. Although the level of radiation by radioisotope decreases in length of time, radiation exposure problem still exists since workers are easily exposed by a low level of radiation for a long time due to their job assignment for maintenance or repair of the proton facility. In this paper, the working environment near cyclotron, where the highest radiation exposure is expected, was studied by measuring the degree of radiation and its duration for an appropriate level of protective action guide. To do this, we measured the radiation change in the graphite based energy degrader, the efficiency of transmitted beam and relative activation degree of the transmission beam line. The results showed that while the level of radiation exposure around cyclotron and beam line during the operation is much higher than the other radiation therapy facilities, the radiation exposure rate per year is under the limit recommended by the law showing 1~3 mSv/year.
Acceleration ; Cyclotrons ; Gamma Rays ; Graphite ; Jurisprudence ; Korea ; Proton Therapy ; Protons ; Radioisotopes

This review discusses the production of alpha-particle-emitting radionuclides in radioimmunotherapy. Radioimmunotherapy labeled with alpha-particle is expected to be very useful for the treatment of monocellular cancer (e.g. leukemia) and micrometastasis at an early stage, residual tumor remained in tissues after chemotherapy and tumor resection, due to the high linear energy transfer (LET) and the short path length in biological tissue of alpha particle. Despite of the expected effectiveness of alpha-particle in radioimmunotherapy, its clinical research has not been activated by the several reasons, shortage of a suitable a-particle development and a reliable radionuclide production and supply system, appropriate antibody and chelator development. Among them, the establishment of radionuclide development and supply system is a key factor to make an alpha-immunotherapy more popular in clinical trial. Alpha-emitter can be produced by several methods, natural radionuclides, reactor irradiation, cyclotron irradiation, generator system and elution. Due to the sharply increasing demand of 213Bi, which is a most promising radionuclide in radioimmunotherapy and now has been produced with reactor, the cyclotron production system should be developed urgently to meet the demand.
Alpha Particles ; Cyclotrons ; Drug Therapy ; Linear Energy Transfer ; Neoplasm Micrometastasis ; Neoplasm, Residual ; Radioimmunotherapy* ; Radioisotopes*

PURPOSE: To evaluate biological characteristics of neutron beam generated by MC50 cyclotron located in the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The neutron beams generated with 15 mm Beryllium target hit by 35 MeV proton beam was used and dosimetry data was measured before in-vitro study. We irradiated 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Gy of neutron beam to EMT-6 cell line and surviving fraction (SF) was measured. The SF curve was also examined at the same dose when applying lead shielding to avoid gamma ray component. In the X-ray experiment, SF curve was obtained after irradiation of 0, 2, 5, 10, and 15 Gy. RESULTS: The neutron beams have 84% of neutron and 16% of gamma component at the depth of 2 cm with the field size of 26 x 26 cm2, beam current 20 micro A, and dose rate of 9.25 cGy/min. The SF curve from X-ray, when fitted to linear-quadratic (LQ) model, had 0.611 as alpha/beta ratio (alpha=0.0204, beta=0.0334, R2=0.999, respectively). The SF curve from neutron beam had shoulders at low dose area and fitted well to LQ model with the value of R2 exceeding 0.99 in all experiments. The mean value of alpha and beta were -0.315 (range, -0.254 ~ -0.360) and 0.247 (0.220~0.262), respectively. The addition of lead shielding resulted in no straightening of SF curve and shoulders in low dose area still existed. The RBE of neutron beam was in range of 2.07~2.19 with SF=0.1 and 2.21~2.35 with SF=0.01, respectively. CONCLUSION: The neutron beam from MC50 cyclotron has significant amount of gamma component and this may have contributed to form the shoulder of survival curve. The RBE of neutron beam generated by MC50 was about 2.2.
Beryllium ; Cell Line ; Cyclotrons* ; Gamma Rays ; Korea ; Neutrons* ; Population Characteristics* ; Protons ; Shoulder

This paper is described on the development of KOTRON-13 and recent status of PET cyclotron by commercial cyclotron companies. KIRAMS has developed medical cyclotron which is KIRAMS-13. Samyoung Unitech produces KOTRON-13 with transfered technology by KIRAMS. As a part of Regional Cyclotron Installation Project, KOTRON-13 cyclotrons and [18F]FDG production modules are being installed at regional cyclotron centers in Korea. The medical concern with radiation technology has been growing for the last several years. Early cancer diagnosis through the cyclotron and PET-CT have been brought to public attention by commercial cyclotron models in the world. The new commercial cyclotron models are introduced compact low energy cyclotrons developed by CTI, GE, Sumitomo in recent. It produces different short-lived radioisotopes, such as [18F], [11C], [13N] and [15O]. For the better reliability acceleration particle is proton only. The characteristics of new model cyclotrons are changed to lower energy corresponding to less 13 MeV. New models have self-shielding and low power consumption. Design criteria for the different types of commercial cyclotrons are described with reference to hospital demands.
Acceleration ; Cyclotrons* ; Diagnosis ; Korea ; Protons ; Radioisotopes