SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1989
STP10131S

Spectrum Measurements on Filtered Neutron Beams for Medical Applications

Source

Boron neutron capture therapy involves thermal neutron irradiation following preferential incorporation of boron by 10B-loaded tumor-seeking drugs. Attenuation precludes deep-seated tumor treatment using incident thermal neutrons. Attention is now being focused on epithermal/intermediate neutrons subsequently moderated in tissue to give a more uniform flux distribution, suitable for brain tumor therapy.

Choice of incident neutron energy is critical because the proton recoil damage is indiscriminate. Following irradiations of various biological cell lines in vitro with and without boron perfusion in our iron-filtered 24.5 keV beam, we have developed an argon/aluminum/sulfur/filtered broad spectrum beam. The paper describes our proton recoil spectrometry for the > 10 keV range and determination of the spectrum below that using spectrum modifiers such as 10B, V, and Ti. The adjustment code SENSAK was used to obtain our best estimate of the beam spectrum, from which a mean energy of 9.8 keV was derived.

Author Information

Constantine, G
U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, Harwell Laboratory, Oxfordshire, U.K.
Brenen, A
U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, Harwell Laboratory, Oxfordshire, U.K.
Moore, PGF
U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, Harwell Laboratory, Oxfordshire, U.K.
Perks, CA
U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, Harwell Laboratory, Oxfordshire, U.K.
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Details
Developed by Committee: E10
Pages: 699–709
DOI: 10.1520/STP10131S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-5069-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-1184-4