Background: The global supply shortage of medical radioisotopes caused by the unscheduled shutdown of the aged reactors which supply over 90% of radioisotopes overall the world
has severely affected the normal healthcare system which depend on the technology of molecular imaging for diagnoses and therapy as well as the development of nuclear molecular imaging technology.Purpose: It is urgently needed to develop new alternative technologies to solve the problem of global radioisotope supply shortage.Methods: The proton cyclotron is a potential alternative technology to produce the99mTc and the most of medical radioisotopes of clinical importance.Results: The quality of 99mTc produced by cyclotron
such as nuclide purity
specific activity and nonradioisotope impurities
has reached and/or exceeded that eluted from99Mo/99mTc generator produced by reactor.Conclusions: It is the most operational and sustainable way to substitute the conventional global centralized supply by reactors with local centralized supply of radioisotopes by proton cyclotrons for securing the national supply of radioisotopes.