? The growth of positron emission tomography (PET) as a powerful imaging technique in nuclear medicine and drug research and development is accompanied by an increasing demand for new radiolabeling methods and appropriate radionuclides. The choice of positron-emitting radionuclides for medical applications continues the requirement for accurate knowledge of nuclear structure and decay data. The radiochemists' task is especially challenging when utilizing the short-lived radionuclides, i.e. carbon-11, nitrogen-13 and oxygen-15. The short half-lives impose serious constraints on the synthetic routes and methods for the incorporation of the specific radionuclide as well as restrict the chemical approaches to those routes based upon readily available labeled precursors. The Cyclotron Core Facility at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has been successful in the preparation and application of cyclotron-produced radionuclides and radiolabeled compounds for more than three decades. Until recently, the considerations were particularly important at MSKCC whose cyclotron core facility program had been characterized by both overcoming the energy constraints imposed by the CS-15 cyclotron and the preparation of novel radionuclides appropriate for radiopharmaceutical chemistry formulations utilized in the early detection of metabolic abnormalities. The recently installed TR 19/9 negative ion, dual particle cyclotron due to circumstances beyond the investigator's control, had to be located several city blocks removed from the main campus and it currently operates for the production of both short-lived and longer-lived novel radionuclides. However, the application of the short-lived radionuclides on our main campus has been hampered by the consortium location site. The administrative commitment for the installation of a dedicated, shelf-shielded, radioisotope delivery system optimized solely to produce the """"""""classical"""""""" short lived PET radionuclides on main campus eliminates numerous delivery and synthetic problems and supplements the production support for the larger TR 19/9 cyclotron. ? ?
