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Dose point kernel for boron-11 decay and the cellular S values in boron neutron capture therapy
Yunzhi Ma1, JinPeng Geng, Song Gao
1Research Center for Tumor Diagnosis and Radiotherapy Physics and Laboratory of Medical Physics and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
The study of the radiobiology of boron neutron capture therapy is based on the cellular level dosimetry of boron-10's thermal neutron capture reaction 10B(n,alpha)7Li, in which one 1.47 MeV helium-4 ion and one 0.84 MeV lithium-7 ion are spawned. Because of the chemical preference of boron-10 carrier molecules, the dose is heterogeneously distributed in cells. In the present work, the (scaled) dose point kernel of boron-11 decay, called 11B-DPK, was calculated by GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulation code. The DPK curve drops suddenly at the radius of 4.26 microm, the continuous slowing down approximation (CSDA) range of a lithium-7 ion. Then, after a slight ascending, the curve decreases to near zero when the radius goes beyond 8.20 microm, which is the CSDA range of a 1.47 MeV helium-4 ion. With the DPK data, S values for nuclei and cells with the boron-10 on the cell surface are calculated for different combinations of cell and nucleus sizes. The S value for a cell radius of 10 microm and a nucleus radius of 5 microm is slightly larger than the value published by Tung et al. [Appl. Radiat. Isot. 61, 739-743 (2004)]. This result is potentially more accurate than the published value since it includes the contribution of a lithium-7 ion as well as the alpha particle.
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