Tracers / [18F]DCFPyL

[18F]DCFPyL

Also written as [18F]DCFPyL; [F-18]DCFPyL; DCFPyL; F-18 DCFPyL; piflufolastat; piflufolastat F18; PyL
Radionuclide
F-18 t½ 109.7 min
Modality
PET
Production route
Cyclotron liquid target
Stage
Approved
Syntheses indexed
16

What it is

Compound class
Small molecule (urea-based)
Target / mechanism
Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PMID 28283702 / DOI 10.1007/s00259-017-3670-z
Clinical application
Prostate cancer staging and recurrence PMID 28283702 / DOI 10.1007/s00259-017-3670-z
Theranostic pair
<a href="/tracers/lu177-psma617/">lu177-psma617</a>

Regulatory status

FDA
Yes — 2021; PYLARIFY (piflufolastat F 18); Progenics Pharmaceuticals (Lantheus); NDA 214793 Drugs@FDA, NDA 214793, approved 2021-05-26 — https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/daf/index.cfm?event=BasicSearch.process&searchTerm=piflufolastat
EMA (centralised)
Yes — 2023; Pylclari (piflufolastat (18F)); Curium Pet France; EMEA/H/C/005520 EMA medicines register, EPAR Pylclari, marketing authorisation issued 2023-11-27 — https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/EPAR/pylclari
Other approvals
Brand names
Pylarify (US, FDA); Pylclari (EU, EMA)

Clinical use

Typical injected activity
333 MBq (9 mCi) per US prescribing information; clinical studies used ~300-321 MBq FDA prescribing information PYLARIFY (NDA 214793); PMID 31676732 / DOI 10.2967/jnumed.119.234799
Uptake time
60 min post-injection (per prescribing information); studies also imaged at 1-2 h FDA prescribing information PYLARIFY (NDA 214793); PMID 35396969 / DOI 10.1007/s00259-022-05775-z

Reported in the literature. Not a dosing recommendation.

Published syntheses

ModuleCassettePurificationYield %RCP %Precursor / supplierSource
5-12% (literature); >20% with direct fluorination
yes
DCFPyL precursor27847991
2017 Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging
The radiosynthesis of [68Ga]Ga-PSMA-HBED-CC [29] and [18F]DCFPyL [22] were performed according to previously reported methods and are described in the supporting information. — [18F]DCFPyL suffers from poor radiochemical yields (in the range 5–12 % decay-corrected [23, 24], although recently an improved synthesis by direct fluorination has been reported to increase yield to greater than 20 % [25]
TRACERlab FX FN
GE HealthCare
HPLC23 ± 5 %
yes
98 %compound 9 (trimethylammonium salt)27142881
2016 EJNMMI Res
Automated radiosynthesis of [18F]DCFPyL was performed on a GE TRACERlabTM FXFN automated synthesis unit (ASU) equipped with an integrated HPLC system — The overall isolated radiochemical yield of [18F]DCFPyL was 23 ± 5 % (n = 10, decay-corrected).
41037308
2025 JAMA Oncol
40361490
2025 Cancers (Basel)
FASTlab
GE HealthCare
custom manifoldSPE25 to 37% (uncorrected)
no
93–98%trimethylammonium precursor of [18F]F-Py-TFP (precursor 2) and Glu-CO-Lys
ABX
35507241
2022 EJNMMI Radiopharm Chem
using the FASTlab™ synthesizer — affords convenient access to the PSMA tracer [18F]DCFPyL in radiochemical yields ranging from 25 to 37% (uncorrected)
In-house / custom built
in-house
custom manifoldHPLC+SPE30.9
no
5-(((S)-6-(tert-butoxy)-5-(3-((S)-1,5-di-tert-butoxy-1,5-dioxopentan-2-yl)ureido)-6-oxohexyl)carbamoyl)-N,N,N-trimethylpyridin-2-aminium trifluoromethanesulfonate (3)27470935
2016 J Labelled Comp Radiopharm
The radiotracer synthesis was performed on a custom-made radiofluorination module and the Sofie Biosciences ELIXYS. — an average radiochemical yield of 30.9% at EOS
ELIXYS FLEX/CHEM
Sofie Biosciences
vendor cassetteHPLC+SPE19
no
5-(((S)-6-(tert-butoxy)-5-(3-((S)-1,5-di-tert-butoxy-1,5-dioxopentan-2-yl)ureido)-6-oxohexyl)carbamoyl)-N,N,N-trimethylpyridin-2-aminium trifluoromethanesulfonate (3)27470935
2016 J Labelled Comp Radiopharm
The ELIXYS (Sofie Biosciences, Inc, Culver City, California) module is a commercially available automated multireactor radiosynthesizer. — an average radiochemical yield of 19% at EOS
41698968
2026 Sci Rep
39743616
2025 Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging
38577331
2024 Front Oncol
34287731
2021 EJNMMI Res
33674398
2021 J Nucl Med
31940969
2020 Pharmaceuticals (Basel)
28639122
2017 Mol Imaging Biol
34998217
2022 Nucl Med Biol
37544015
2024 Med Phys

Precursor

Common precursor
Glu-CO-Lys (Glu-urea-Lys) pseudo-peptide precursor (2-step with [18F]F-Py-TFP prosthetic group); or the trimethylammonium-nicotinic-acid-conjugated Glu-CO-Lys precursor for direct 1-step labelling PMID 35507241 / DOI 10.1186/s41181-022-00157-0
Suppliers seen in the literature
ABX GmbH (Radeberg, Germany) or Scintomics GmbH (Fuerstenfeldbruck, Germany)
Cited suppliers in indexed syntheses
ABX
Typical final purification

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Quality control Derived from the published synthesis

Ph. Eur. monograph
no specific monograph
USP monograph
not verified — the USP-NF monograph index is subscription-only and no public confirmation was found
AppearancepHRCP HPLCHPLC UVResidual solvents (GC)KryptofixRadionuclidic (HPGe)Half-lifeActivityEndotoxins (LAL)SterilityFilter integrityMolar activity
How this set was arrived at. Cross-checked against Ph. Eur. general monograph 0125 (base set), EANM validation guideline (PMC7016057) and cGRPP guidance (PMC7881071). Draft X-marks consistent with the base set; tracer-specific analytical tests follow the specific monograph where one exists.

Tests listed by reference only. Monograph texts are copyrighted and are not reproduced here. How these are derived

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Notes

One published route uses the [18F]F-Py-TFP prosthetic group.