Model development for estimating effects of boron neutron capture therapy

Fukunaga, Hisanori*; Matsuya, Yusuke  

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is one of the radiation therapies, enabling selectively eradicating tumors by short-range a-particles and Li ions generated through the nuclear reaction between thermal neutron and B within tumor cells. With the development of the accelerator-based neutron source in the recent decades, it is expected that BNCT will be available in many medical facilities worldwide in the future. BNCT irradiation needs a relatively long dose-delivery time after taking up boron drug into tumor cells by intravenous injection. During the period, it is suspected that the boron drug is heterogeneously taken up into cells and its concentration changes continuously, leading to the modification of curative effects from the pharmacological and biological viewpoints. However, the model development for precisely predicting curative effects after BNCT irradiation is still ongoing. Here, we introduce the forefront of model development for estimating the curative effects during BNCT irradiation with high accuracy. This review can create the synergetic effects through an interdisciplinary research approach that can connect the fields of physics, pharmacology, biology and medicine, and would pave the way for new era of BNCT.