RBE of a Thermal Neutron Beam and the10B(n, α)7Li Reaction on Cultured B-16 Melanoma Cells

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Abstract
The RBE of a thermal neutron beam and the 10B(n, α)7Li reaction were determined in cultured B-16 melanoma cells. The Kyoto University Research Reactor (KUR) was used as a thermal neutron source which had a very low contamination of gamma-rays and fast neutrons. The cells were irradiated with the beam in the presence or absence of 10B-boric acid. The absorbed dose from the neutron capture reaction to the cells was calculated by a method of Kitao (1975). Survival curves in both conditions had no shoulder and D0 values were 0·506 or 0·604 Gy in the presence or absence of 5 µg 10B/ml-medium, respectively. The D0 value of the 10B(n, α)7Li reaction was also estimated at 0·466 Gy, assuming each component of radiation was additive. The RBEs of the KUR thermal neutron beam and the 10B(n, α)7Li reaction relative to 60Co gamma-rays were estimated as 4·62 and 6·01 at 0·1 surviving fraction, respectively. Using these results, we calculated the absorbed dose from the 10B-compound and estimated the specific accumulation in the cultured cells of 10B-compounds which we have previously reported but not quantified (Nakanishi et al. 1980, Ichihashi et al. 1982).