Boron neutron capture therapy
Boron neutron capture therapy (English Boron Neutron Capture Therapy , BNCT) is a which is still in the experimental stage cancer therapy , wherein the boron compounds in the cancer cells infiltrated and there with a slow (thermal) neutrons are irradiated. The nuclear reaction that then ensues
releases rapid helium and lithium ions . Their range and thus their destructive effect is roughly the same as that of a cell.
It is of crucial importance for the method to find non-toxic boron compounds that accumulate as much as possible in tumor tissue than in healthy tissue, so that this can then be selectively destroyed by neutron irradiation . The physiology of the cancer cells, i.e. their particularly high rate of proliferation, should be exploited. An attempt is made to bind amino acids with high affinities to certain growth factors to a boron cluster ( carbaborane icosahedron ). The advantage of this approach would be that healthy tissue would be almost completely spared, because in the absence of boron, slow neutrons in the tissue cause only very little damage.
If a suitable boron compound is available, which is only stored very little in healthy tissue, deep-lying tumors could therefore be treated "bloodlessly" without removing parts in front of them. In this case, the incident neutron energy spectrum must the be adapted to this by the moderator effect have reached the tissue when it reaches the tumor precisely the thermal energy.
The idea for the BNCT was developed in 1936 by Gordon L. Locher . Promising results have now been achieved in the treatment of certain brain tumors .
literature
- W. Kliegel: Boron in biology, medicine and pharmacy . Springer, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-540-93411-1 .
- D. Gabel: Boron neutron capture therapy of tumors. In: Chemistry in Our Time. 31, 1997, pp. 235-240, doi : 10.1002 / ciuz.19970310505 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ GL Locher: Biological effects and therapeutic possibilities of neutrons. In: Am J Roentgenol Radium Ther. Volume 36, 1936, pp. 1-13.
