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Neutron dosimetry in boron neutron capture therapy
The recent development of various borated compounds and the utilization of one of these (Na/sub 2/B/sub 12/H/sub 11/SH) to treat brain tumors in clinical studies in Japan has renewed interest in neutron capture therapy. In these procedures thermal neutrons interact with /sup 10/B in boron containing cells through the /sup 10/B(n,..cap alpha..)/sup 7/Li reaction producing charged particles with a maximum range of approx. 10..mu..m in tissue. Borated analogs of chlorpromazine, porphyrin, thiouracil and deoxyuridine promise improved tumor uptake and blood clearance. The therapy beam from the Medical Research Reactor in Brookhaven contains neutrons from a modified and filtered fission spectrum and dosimetric consequences of the use of the above mentioned compounds in conjunction with thermal and epithermal fluxes are discussed in the paper. One of the important problems of radiation dosimetry in capture therapy is determination of the flux profile and, hence, the dose profile in the brain. This has been achieved by constructing a brain phantom made of TE plastic. The lyoluminescence technique provides a convenient way of monitoring the neutron flux distributions; the detectors for this purpose utilize /sup 6/Li and /sup 10/B compounds. Such compounds have been synthesized specially for the purpose of dosimetry of thermal and epithermal beams. In addition, standard lyoluminescent phosphors, like glutamine, could be used to determine the collisional component of the dose as well as the contribution of the /sup 14/N(n,p)/sup 14/C reaction. Measurements of thermal flux were compared with calculations and with measurements done with activation foils