A COMPACT SOURCE FOR NEUTRON CAPTURE THERAPY FOR PONTINE GLIOMA.

The childhood cancer of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) has a 0% survival rate and no long-term cure. Conventional radiation therapy is the main palliative treatment but only provides a temporary response to slow or shrink the tumor. It may provide only a temporary easing of symptoms lasting an average of 6 months and extend life by an average of 3 months. Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a novel radiation treatment that can provide a more specific and targeted destruction of the cancer cells while minimizing healthy cell death. DIPG is not like most brain tumors in that it is not a solid mass; it weaves itself among the nerve fibers of the pons, making it impossible to excise and conventionally irradiate without the destruction of healthy tissue. A new pulsed neutron generator married to a collimating optic can deliver the neutrons directly to the Pons while minimizing harm to healthy cell thus achieving close irradiation and, with a boron delivery to the cancer cells, specific cancer cell destruction. To provide a more directional tumor-volume and cell-specific targeting we propose a compact generator integrated with a spectral- and volume-shaping delivery optic to direct thermal neutrons to the pons inside the body with minimal invasiveness. The ratio of the boron delivered to the cancer cell vs that taken up by a healthy cell increases the cancer cell death by roughly that ratio permitting increased dose in a reasonable period and full tumor death.