Boron neutron capture therapy

Boron neutron capture therapy is a form of cancer treatment in which boron-10 compounds accumulate in tumors and are irradiated with neutrons, producing short-range particles that damage nearby cells.

Boron-10: A stable isotope of boron with five protons and five neutrons that readily captures low-energy neutrons. Its neutron capture releases the particles that cause most of the localized radiation damage.
Glioblastoma: An aggressive primary brain cancer arising from glial-lineage cells. It has been a major target of clinical BNCT research because local treatment can reach infiltrative brain tumors.
Gordon Locher: A physicist who proposed using neutron capture by boron to selectively irradiate tumors in 1936. His proposal established the core therapeutic idea behind BNCT.
External beam radiotherapy: Radiation therapy that directs ionizing radiation from a source outside the body toward a tumor. Unlike BNCT, it does not require a boron compound to generate damaging particles within tissue.
Neutron capture: A nuclear reaction in which an atomic nucleus absorbs a neutron. Boron-10 capture is the reaction at the center of the treatment.
Head and neck cancer: A group of cancers arising in the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, and nearby structures. Clinical BNCT has been used for selected recurrent or unresectable tumors in this region.
William Sweet: An American neurosurgeon who helped develop early clinical boron neutron capture therapy for brain tumors. His work brought the approach into human treatment studies.
Proton therapy: Radiation therapy that uses accelerated protons to deposit dose in a targeted region. Its dose localization relies on proton energy loss, not neutron capture by tumor-associated boron.
Alpha particle: A helium-4 nucleus consisting of two protons and two neutrons. The boron reaction produces alpha particles that travel only a short distance through tissue.
Sodium borocaptate: A water-soluble boron-containing compound developed for boron neutron capture therapy. It is an established delivery agent studied particularly in brain-tumor treatment.

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