Nuclear reaction analysis of boron for microbeam analysis of medical samples

doi:10.1016/0168-583X(95)80094-8

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms

Volume 104, Issues 1–4, 2 September 1995, Pages 255-260

https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-583X(95)80094-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a cancer therapy whose efficiency depends on the location of the boron within the cell. In the work presented in this paper an attemp is made to develop a method to analyze boron in biological tissue, with a detection limit at the ng/cm² level and a lateral resolution of about 1 μm. Various nuclear reactions were investigated in order to find one that can be used with a nuclear microprobe (NMP). ¹⁰B was studied with the photon-tagged nuclear reaction analysis (pNRA) in the backward and forward directions. ¹¹B was studied at the broad, low-energy resonance (E_p = 0.66 MeV) that emits α particles. It is shown that it is possible to measure boron in biological tissue with the latter technique at the NMP. The problem of imaging the cell is also discussed.

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In the future a fixed installation of the boron setup will be possible improving the capability and the access to fast analysis. The recent development in the setup for photon-tagged Nuclear Reaction Analysis (pNRA) [12] opens up the option to do boron isotope measurements, for example by complementing the present technique on 11B with a (p,α)-reaction on 10B [13]. This would be of geochemical interest since 10B has a marked preference for the tetrahedral BO4-configuration, while 11B prefers trigonal BO3-groups.
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The availability of many nuclear reactions for interaction of light ions with matter means that with the right choice of projectile and projectile energy all elements from lithium all the way up to chlorine can be observed and quantified [6]. Previous pNRA setup at LIBAF has been used for boron measurements in biological samples [7]. It was also suggested that this method could be successfully combined with a nuclear microprobe setup [6].
A new setup for photon tagged nuclear reaction analysis pNRA is being developed at Lund’s ion beam analysis facility LIBAF. Particle induced gamma ray emission PIGE and nuclear reaction analysis NRA are two methods that have been extensively used for light isotope measurement in ion beam analysis IBA. There is an abundance of nuclear reactions between light elements and MeV protons, deuterons and alpha particles. This means that in principle all elements from lithium all the way up to chlorine can be analyzed using those techniques. Detection limits can be improved for some elements, if those two methods are fused together into pNRA.
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Nuclear reaction analysis of boron for microbeam analysis of medical samples

Abstract

Nucl. Instr. and Meth.

Nucl. Instr. and Meth.

Nucl. Instr. and Meth.

Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B

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Nucl. Instr. and Meth.