Investigation of Photon Doses Reaching Healthy Tissues in the Use of Different Neutron Energies in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy

Abstract

Bo ron neu tron cap ture ther apy is a unique treat ment method that aims to kill the tu mor cells with the help of heavy par ti cles. Par ti cles re sult ing from the in ter ac tion of the tu mor re gion containing 10B at oms with ther mal or epi ther mal neu trons have the most im por tant role in this treat ment method. In this study, gamma ra di a tion reach ing healthy tis sues, which is the result of 10B(n,a)7Li reaction, was investigated. A simulation suitable for boron neutron cap-ture ther apy treat ment, in clud ing the hu man head model, was cre ated by the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) program. By using five different neutron energies, the gamma radiations resulting from the 10B(n,a)7Li re ac tion in the de ter mined re gions, close to the tu mor tis sue, were in ves ti gated. It was ob served that the healthy tis sue be tween the tu mor area and the sur - face is ex posed to the high est gamma flux and the high est gamma ra di a tion ab sorp tion. It was also ob served that these val ues in crease as neu tron en ergy de creases. It was found that the gamma doses re ceived by some re gions out side the neu tron ir ra di a tion area could be sig nif i - cant. It has been un der stood that the change in neu tron en ergy may cause sig nif i cant changes in gamma ra di a tion val ues reach ing healthy tis sues, es pe cially in re gions close to the sur face. In boron neu tron cap ture ther apy treat ments, the neu trons sent to the tu mor should be se -lected de pend ing on the lo ca tion of the tu mor and the size of the tu mor area. This study con -tains sig nif i cant data about pho ton doses in healthy tis sues around the brain re gion treated us ing dif fer ent neu tron en er gies with the boron neu tron cap ture ther apy tech nique.