REVIEW PAPER
Boron neutron capture therapy – a brief review of principles and clinical applications
1
Division of Medical Biology, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland
2
Reactor Research Division, National Centre for Nuclear Research, Świerk, Poland
3
Centre for Radiobiology and Biological Dosimetry, Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Warsaw, Poland
4
Centre for Radiation Protection Research, Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Submission date: 2023-11-24
Final revision date: 2025-01-11
Acceptance date: 2025-06-14
Publication date: 2026-06-29
Corresponding author
Medical Studies 2026;42(2):168-173
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) exploits alpha and lithium particles produced in the boron-10 fission reaction (10B(n,α)7Li) with epithermal neutrons to inactivate cancer cells in the tumour volume ranges of produced alpha and lithium particles are limited to individual cells, so the boron-10 atoms should be located only in the target cancer cells. First, there is a need to administer to the patient the boron-10 carrier, which selectively deposits boron-10 atoms in cancer cells. Next, an external beam of epithermal neutrons must be delivered to the treated volume. BNCT is thus a bimodal method, combining epithermal neutron beam teletherapy with systemic therapy. Although BNCT is still under development, recent advances in boron-10 delivery agents and in accelerator-based epithermal neutron beam generation offer a new perspective for BNCT. These advances and some clinical applications of BNCT are briefly reviewed.
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| ISSN: | 1899-1874 |
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