Medical Cyclotron Facility(MCF)
Medical Cyclotron Facility (MCF):
A Medical Cyclotron Facility has been established and made fully functional by Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre at Chalkgaria, Kolkata. The 30 MeV DAE Medical Cyclotron Facility became operational on September 18, 2018 and 18F (Fuorine-18 isotope) was successfully produced with experimental production of Fluro-Deoxy-Glucose (FDG) radiopharmaceutical.
Regular Commercial Production and supply (by BRIT operated by VECC) of:
⦁ FDG (for diagnosis of cancer) started in June, 2020 at MCF and have been continuing on regular basis, even in lockdown days.
⦁ 18F-NaF (for bone scanning) started in Jan, 2021 at MCF.
⦁ Gallium-68-PSMA (for diagnosis of prostate cancer) started in March, 2022 at MCF and afterwards Ga-68-DOTATATE (for diagnosis of endocrine cancer).
⦁ For the first time in India, Thallium-201-Chloride (human applications started successfully in Dec, 2021) was produced for Cardiac studies (Rest Stress on Ischemia evaluation and also rest only for viability assessment) in patients referred for suspected coronary artery disease evaluation.
Also Gallium-67-citrate radiopharmaceutical (for soft tissue tumor imaging, e.g., abscess and infection imaging) was successfully produced on experimental basis. We have future plan to produce other radioisotopes for human applications.