Enhancing the effectiveness of boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) for cancer treatment

Abstract

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) has the potential to kill tumours without harming normal cells and could therefore prove revolutionary in cancer treatment. BNCT is a treatment that focuses on how the chemical element boron has a high likelihood of causing nuclear reactions with neutrons. A key focus for some researchers is the idea that the nuclear reaction of boron occurs in proportion to the number of optimal energy neutrons and the concentration of boron at the tumour location and they believe that if this could be properly harnessed, the treatment would be dramatically improved. Dr Sachie Kusaka, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Japan, is part of a team of researchers working to improve the effectiveness of BNCT for brain tumour. Kusaka has identified an alternative route to deliver the boron drug BPA efficiently to the brain by avoiding the blood-brain barrier, and named the route "boron cerebrospinal fluid administration method". "Administering the drug into the cerebrospinal fluid could enable more boron to be efficiently delivered to the brain tumour,' says Kusaka.