The overview and prospects of BNCT facility at Tsing Hua Open-pool reactor

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2020.109143Get rights and content

Highlights

  • THOR has gone into critical since 1961.

  • THOR facility is the only reactor-based facility still clinically active.

  • We have accomplished two clinical trials for recurrent head and neck cancer.

  • 26 patients have been treated with 9 CRs and 4 survivals.

  • THOR BNCT facility is open to the BNCT community all around the world.

Abstract

The whole picture of the BNCT facility at Tsing Hua Open-pool Reactor will be presented which consists of the following aspects: the construction project, the beam quality, routine operations including the QA program for the beam delivery, determination of boron-10 concentration in blood, T/N ratio, and the clinical affairs including the patient recruit procedure and the patient irradiation procedure. The facility is positioned to serve for conducting clinical trials, emergent (compassionate) treatments, and R&D works.

Introduction

The BNCT facility at Tsing Hua Open-pool Reactor (THOR) started construction in 2000 and was completed in 2005. After the commissioning test and pre-clinical study, it went to clinical trials since August 11, 2010. Up to now, it has carried out two clinical trials for recurrent head and neck cancer. For the first protocol of the clinical trial, there were 17 patients, each patient underwent two fractions of treatment with an interval of one month. There were 9 patients in the second protocol, each patient underwent one fraction of treatment and one month later received an image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IG-IMRT). Since 2017 it launched into emergent (compassionate) treatment for patients with a variety of cancers. In this paper, an overview of the BNCT facility at THOR will be elaborated at first. In the end, the prospects of the facility will then be presented.

Section snippets

Historical development of BNCT in Taiwan

Some professors of different disciplines at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Hsinchu started BNCT research early in 1992. They were engaged separately in the preliminary design of an epithermal neutron beam for BNCT, development of measurement technique for beam characterization, and investigation of boron drug pharmacokinetics. From 2000 to 2005, we received a grant of national R&D (research and development) project from the National Science Council with a total amount of 3.85 M US$ to

Prospects

The BNCT facility at THOR is positioned as a facility for conducting clinical trials, emergent (compassionate) treatments and inter-disciplinary R&D works. It is cordially open to the BNCT community all around the world. After the next license renewal in 2021 THOR can be operated for another ten years.

Summary

BNCT research started in Taiwan early in 1992. The epithermal neutron beam BNCT facility at THOR was established in 2005. The first patient irradiation in clinical trials for recurrent head and neck cancer was on August 11, 2010. We have accomplished two phase I/II clinical trials for recurrent head and neck cancer, where 26 patients have been treated with 9 CRs and 4 survivals. Since 2017 we have engaged in emergent (compassionate) treatments on case by case and approved basis mainly for

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Shiang-Huei Jiang: Writing - original draft, Methodology, Investigation. Yen-Wan Hsueh Liu: Methodology, Investigation. Fong-In Chou: Methodology, Investigation. Hong-Ming Liu: Investigation. Jinn-Jer Peir: Investigation. Yuan-Hao Liu: Investigation. Yu-Shiang Huang: Investigation. Ling-Wei Wang: Methodology, Investigation. Yi-Wei Chen: Methodology, Investigation. Sang-Hue Yen: Supervision, Investigation. Yuan-Hung Wu: Methodology, Investigation. Ching-Sheng Liu: Investigation. Jia-Cheng Lee:

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgment

This work was mainly supported by the National Science Council of the Republic of China, Taiwan under contract numbers NSC89-2745-P-007-004, NSC91-2745-P-007-001, NSC92-2745-P-007-002, and NSC94-2212-E-007-069 and -136 and partly supported by the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Atomic Energy Council of the republic of China, Taiwan and the boost program funded by National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.

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