Preparation and Clinical Application of ¹⁸F-DCFPyL

¹⁸F-DCFPyL, a PSMA-based PET imaging agent for prostate cancer, was auto synthesized and evaluated. Following the direct nucleophilic heteroaromatic substitution with ¹⁸Ffluoride at the ortho-position of precursor, the deprotection of the ester moieties of the intermediate with different acids was attempted to obtain a good hydrolysis yield. The biodistribution in normal NIH mice and PET/CT imaging for a patient with biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer were also performed. The results showed that no remarkable discrepancy of the hydrolysis efficiency was found among three kinds of acids, H₃PO₄, HCl and HI, which were 17.1%, 16.9% and 18.4%, respectively with a specific activity of 54 to 90 GBq/μmol. The highest levels of radioactivity in the NIH mice were observed in the kidneys. Meanwhile, the uptake of the tracer in the blood was declined rapidly and a low accumulation of the radio-tracer was observed in most of the other organs. ¹⁸F-DCFPyL PET imaging for a postoperative patient with biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer can detect small metastatic foci that can not be detected by the CT. ¹⁸F-DCFPyL was synthesized reliably and repeatedly by domestic synthesis module and it passed the quality control. It has satisfactory properties in vivo and is probably suitable for early diagnosis of prostate cancer and detection of lesions in patients with biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer.