A HISTORY OF BORON NEUTRON CAPTURE THERAPY OF BRAIN TUMOURS
- 1 August 1991
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Brain
- Vol. 114 (4) , 1609-1629
- https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/114.4.1609
Abstract
SUMMARY Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a form of radiation therapy mediated by the short-range (less than 10 μm) energetic alpha (4He) and lithium-7 (7Li) ionizing particles that result from the prompt disintegration by slow neutrons of the stable (nonradioactive) nucleus boron-10 (10B). Recent advances in radiobiological and toxicological evaluation of tumour-affinitive boron-containing drugs and in optimization of the energies of neutrons in the incident beam have spurred interest in BNCT. This article presents a history of BNCT that emphasizes studies in the USA. A new dosimetric analysis of the 1959—1961 clinical trials of BNCT at Brookhaven National Laboratory is also presented. This analysis yields an acute radiation dose tolerance limit estimate of − 10 Gy-Eq to the capillary endothelium of human basal ganglia from BNCT. (Gy-Eq: Gray-equivalent, or relative biological effectiveness of a radiation component multiplied by the physical dose of the component (Gy), summed over the component kinds of radiation.)Keywords
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