Advanced Application of BNCT in Advanced Cancers

Abstract

We present a new concept of one form of radiation binary targeted therapy that may offer hope for the often fatal relapsed and/or metastasized HER2+ cancers. The idea is to deliver boronated (boron-10 isotope) anti-HER2 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to the patient to be deposited preferentially into the tumor followed by one session of a low energy neutron irradiation. Based on actual computed tomography data, we present the comprehensive theoretical (numerical) modeling of the new approach in designing the treatment conditions for the boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) using the MITRII-FCB neutron beam facility. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed treatment option for the advanced breast cancers and the metastasized breast cancers in the lungs of a patient. Our theoretical analysis concludes that with a boron concentration of ∼316 μg/g in tumor and a tumor-to-healthy tissue boron concentration ratio of 35:1, this new BNCT breast cancer treatment can be performed with very low doses to normal tissue and 50 Gy, or higher, doses delivered to the tumor regions. In particular, when applied to the breast cancer treatment, the resulting doses to skin and lung remain under the tolerance dose values. We also went beyond the traditional application of the BNCT and analyzed its applicability in targeting the metastasized breast cancer; using the same theoretical approach we determined the doses delivered into the patient lung with scattered cancer loci.