Speaker
Description
Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a radiotherapy that consists in patient irradiation with low energy neutrons after the administration of a tumour-targeting borated drug [1]. The thermal neutron capture in 10B generates two high-LET, short-range charged particles that cause non-reparable damages to the cell where the reaction takes place. Provided a suitable tumour-to-normal tissue boron concentration ratio, the neutron irradiation can provide a therapeutic effect while sparing the healthy tissues. Selectivity is guaranteed by boron bio-distribution, thus BNCT is the only hadrontherapy potentially useful to control spread tumours, such as metastases, or malignancies located close to very radiosensitive targets. One of the crucial elements of a BNCT clinical facility is the availability of an intense neutron beam with precise spectral characteristics. The beam design is thus a pivotal aspect of the design of a clinical BNCT centre. Modern BNCT is based on neutron beams obtained from proton accelerators coupled to Be or Li targets. Some aspects of a facility project based on a 5 MeV, 30 microA RFQ proton accelerator, on Be target and on a Beam Shaping Assembly based on aluminum fluoride will be presented, together with the assessment of its therapeutic potential and suitability for clinical use [2]. Moreover, important advancement concerning BNCT mixed-field dosimetry will be introduced. In particular, the need of radiobiological data to feed models for the translation of BNCT dose into photon-equivalent units will be presented in light of the future work in this field [3].
REFERENCES
[1] J.A.Coderre, J.C.Turcotte, K.J.Riley, P.J.Binns, O.K.Harling, W.S.Kiger, “Boron Neutron Capture Therapy: Cellular Targeting of High Linear Energy Transfer Radiation”, Technology of Cancer Ressearch & Treatment ISSN 1533-0346, vol 2 nr 5, 2003.
[2] Postuma, I.; González, S.; Herrera, M.S; Provenzano, L.; Ferrarini, M.; Magni, C.; Protti, N.; Fatemi, S.; Vercesi, V.; Battistoni, G.; Anselmi Tamburini, U.; Liu, Y.H.; Kankaanranta, L.; Koivunoro, H.; Altieri, S.; Bortolussi, S. A Novel Approach to Design and Evaluate BNCT Neutron Beams Combining Physical, Radiobiological, and Dosimetric Figures of Merit. Biology 2021, 10, 174.
[3] G F Perotti Bernardini, S Bortolussi, H Koivunoro, L Provenzano, C Ferrari, L Cansolino, I Postuma, D G Carando, L Kankaanranta, H Joensuu, S J González, Comparison of photon isoeffective dose models based on in-vitro and in-vivo radiobiological experiments for head and neck cancer treated with BNCT, Radiat Res 2022 (on-line first)