Phantom experiment and analysis for in vivo measurement of boron-10 concentrations in melanoma for boron neutron capture therapy.

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Abstract
In the present work, we examined the possibility of in vivo measurement of 10B concentrations in dermal tumor for boron neutron capture therapy. Until now, the microanalysis system of ppm-order 10B concentrations in tissue has been already established for small samples including tissue from the measurement of the ratio of prompt γ-rays emitted from 10B(n, αγ)7Li reactions and from H(n, γ)D reactions, by using the thermal neutron beam at the KUR Neutron Guide Tube. In the application to a human body, unlike a small sample of homogeneous medium of 10B and H, the 10B/H Gamma-ray Counting Ratio depends mainly on (1) the neutron flux distributions in a body, (2) the shape and size of tumor and (3) the neutron beam position on tumor. Then, we carried out phantom experiments in order to study the relation among those factors. On the other hand, we developed a calculation method for estimating 10B/H Gamma-ray Counting Ratio and for investigating general tendency among those factors. In calculations, DOT 3.5 and MORSE-MT were used for the calculation of neutron flux distributions and a hand-made program named BORAD was developed to calculate the 10B/H Gamma-ray Counting Ratio by using the former neutron flux distributions. As a results of these experiments and calculations, it proved to be possible to know 10B concentrations in dermal tumor, of which volume was known in advance, within 20% permissible accuracy for boron neutron capture therapy.

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