The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory has begun a multi-patient clinical trial of an experimental treatment for brain tumors.
Life expectancy is limited, with fewer than three percent surviving beyond five years.
Under a U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol, Brookhaven will administer BNCT to a total of 28 patients, and the trial is expected to take several months to complete. Collaborating with the Laboratory on this project is Beth Israel Medical Center, in New York City. A Radiation Therapy In BNCT, a compound containing the element boron is administered intravenously to the patient, in whom it accumulates preferentially in malignant tumor tissue. The tumor is then irradiated with low-energy neutrons produced by a nuclear reactor. Because the boron concentrates in the tumor cells, researchers hope that the cancer can be destroyed without the radiation seriously affecting normal brain cells nearby.