The growth of diagnostic nuclear medicine is substantially based on the development, availability, and regular clinical use of cyclotron-based positron emission tomography (PET) tracers. Apart from 18F (110 min) products, the radiometal 68Ga isotope (68 min) has found an increasingly wide clinical acceptance. There is hence much merit in identifying and fostering other radiometal positron emitters, of preferably longer half-life. Titanium-45 (3.08 h) fits the bill well in this context, as it is easy to produce using natural scandium metal target and Ep of 13-14 MeV for 45Sc(p, n) 45Ti reaction. This Commentary cites a compelling case to foster the development of 45Ti products for PET imaging.
Keywords: Gallium-68; Titanium-45; medical cyclotron; mononuclidic target; positron emission tomography tracer; scandium target.
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