Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a targeted radiotherapy technique developed to treat patients with certain malignant tumors for which there is no effective conventional treatment. It has recently attracted attention and is being increasingly applied in clinical settings. It has been tested in malignant glioma, melanoma, and head and neck cancer (1-3). This particular radiation therapy is based on the combined use of slow neutrons and one of the two stable isotopes of boron (10B) to destroy tumor cells via the 10B(n,α)7Li neutron capture...

Subjects Patients included in this study had histologically confirmed brain tumors, at least 1 site of measurable disease, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (PS) of 0–1, adequate organ function (neutrophil count ≥ 1,500/μL, platelet count ≥ 75,000/μL, hemoglobin concentration ≥ 9.0 g/dL, serum bilirubin ≤ 1.5 mg/dL, AST and ALT ≤ 100 IU/L, serum creatinine ≤ 1.5 mg/dL, baseline left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) > 60%), and were over 20 years old. The main exclusion criteria were congestive heart failure, uncontrolled angina pectoris, arrhythmia,...

Patient Characteristics A total of 7patients (5 male, 2 female, age range 37–62 y, mean age 47 y) with pathologically brain tumor were enrolled in this study from May 2012 to July 2013. Patient characteristics are summarized in Table 1. Tumor histological types varied widely (3 glioblastoma, 1 anaplastic astrocytoma, 1 anaplastic oligodendroglioma, 1astrocytoma, and 1 oligodendroglioma). Distribution and Internal Dosimetry of FBPA Typical body distribution and brain tumor uptake of FBPA at 1 hour after injection are shown in Figure 2A and B, respectively...

Our findings that the accumulation of FBPA in brain tumor changed in a time-dependent manner may suggest that optimal timing for neutron irradiation could be different in each case. For treatment planning of BNCT, the evaluation of time-dependent accumulation of boron carrier in each case might be important.The major limitations of the present study were the small patient population and limited histological variety. Further research using a larger number of participants, with selection of particular histological diagnostic criteria, is thus called for.

1. Barth RF, Soloway AH, Goodman JH, et al. Boron neutron capture therapy of brain tumors: an emerging therapeutic modality. Neurosurgery 1999;44:433-451. 2. Mishima Y, Honda C, Ichihashi M, et al. Treatment of malignant melanoma by single neutron capture treatment with melanoma-seeking 10B compound. Lancet 1989;2:388-389. 3. Kouri M, Kankaanranta L, Seppälä T, et al. Undifferentiated sinonasal carcinoma may respond to single-fraction boron neutron capture therapy. Radiother Oncol 2004;72:83-85. 4. M.S. Herrera, S.J. González, D.M. Minsky, et al. Evaluation of performance of an accelerator-based BNCT...