The physics, dosimetry and microdosimetry of boron neutron capture theraphy
Abstract
A validated experimental and numerical procedure is described detailing macroscopic and microscopic dose calculations forming the basis of a protocol for the pre-clinical biological characterisation of the University of Birmingham’s BNCT facility. \n \nFundamental reference dosimetric measurements have been carried out at the University of Birmingham’s accelerator based NCT facility and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) research reactor to characterise macroscopic and microscopic doses and derive correction factors for the irradiation of V79 cells incubated in boric acid and irradiated as monolayers. On and off-axis thermal neutron, fast neutron and photon doses have been measured and calculated with standard macroscopic dosimetry techniques (foils and ion chambers) from which normalised MCNPX calculations are used to derive perturbation factors and off-axis corrections for cell flask irradiations. \n \nMicrodosimetric correction factors are calculated for the boron dose component using Monte Carlo methods to simulate lithium ion and alpha particle tracks in semi-stochastic geometries representative of cell monolayer irradiations, incubated in a medium with 50ppm boric acid. Further simulations of recoil protons from nitrogen capture reactions allow for the calculation of correction factors for the non-uniform distribution of the nitrogen dose at the cellular level. \n
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