Chemical synthesis of fluorinated and iodinated 17β-HSD3 inhibitors and evaluation for imaging prostate cancer tumors and tissue biodistribution

•17β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 3 inhibitor 1 accumulates in prostate tumor.•Fluorinated and iodinated analogs of 17β-HSD3 inhibitor 1 were efficiently synthesized.•18F-radiolabelled analog of 1 was synthesized for PET imaging/biodistribution studies.•Given orally in mice, para-iodo analog of 1 was the most metabolically stable inhibitor.