New approach to the microdosimetry of neutron capture therapy

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:7006248

Solares, G R; Zamenhof, R G ^[1]

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1. New England Medical Center, Boston, MA (United States)

Neutron capture therapy (NCT) is a binary radiation therapy modality that brings together two components that when kept separate have only minor effects on cells. The first component is a beam of low-energy neutrons. The second component can be an element such as the stable isotope of boron ({sup 10}B) that can be concentrated in tumor cells. Boron-10 in or adjacent to the tumor cells disintegrates after capturing a neutron producing two high-energy heavily charged particles: an alpha particle and a {sup 7}Li recoil ion, which destroy only the tumor cells in close proximity to it, leaving neighboring normal cells largely unaffected. It has been shown that in order to inactivate a cell, the nucleus of the cell itself has to receive one or more direct hits form the alpha particle or the {sup 7}Li recoil ion. As a result, different microdistributions of boron compounds in tissue can drastically change the dose needed to inactivate the malignant cells; therefore, the significance of being able to determine microscopically the effect of different boron compounds and distributions is clearly of major importance to NCT. The approach used here consists of using actual histological and microdistribution data to assess the microdosimetric effect of various boron distributions in tissue without any assumptions relating to either geometric modeling of the tissues or to boron distributions. The relative energy deposition of alpha particles and {sup 7}Li recoil ions originating from the boron compound in the tissue is calculated using a combination of Monte Carlo analysis, analytical calculations, and image-processing techniques.

• OSTI ID: 7006248
• Report Number(s): CONF-920606--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Journal Volume: 65
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

550604* -- Medicine-- Unsealed Radionuclides in Therapy-- (1980-)
560101 -- Biomedical Sciences
Applied Studies-- Radiation Effects-- Dosimetry & Monitoring-- (1992-)
61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY
62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE
ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES
ANIMAL CELLS
BEAMS
BORON 10
BORON ISOTOPES
DISEASES
DOSIMETRY
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
LITHIUM 7
LITHIUM ISOTOPES
MEDICINE
MICRODOSIMETRY
MONTE CARLO METHOD
NEOPLASMS
NEUTRON BEAMS
NEUTRON CAPTURE THERAPY
NEUTRON THERAPY
NUCLEAR MEDICINE
NUCLEI
NUCLEON BEAMS
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
PARTICLE BEAMS
RADIATION DOSE DISTRIBUTIONS
RADIOLOGY
RADIOTHERAPY
STABLE ISOTOPES
THERAPY
TUMOR CELLS