Neutron capture autoradiographic determination of 10B distributions and concentrations in biological samples for boron neutron capture therapy

It is necessary for effective boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) to accumulate 10B atoms in the tumor cells. We prepared a cationic liposome entrapped 10B compound for the delivery system and examined the delivery capacity of 10B atoms to pancreatic cancer cell, AsPC-1, in vivo. It is required to achieve an accurate measurement of 10B distributions and concentrations in biological samples with a sensitivity in the ppm range for BNCT. We applied CR-39 (polyallyldiglycol carbonate) plastic track detectors to α-autoradiographic measurements of the 10B biodistribution in sliced whole-body samples of mice. To selectively desensitize undesirable proton tracks, we applied PEW (KOH+C2H5OH+H2O) solution to the etching of CR-39 detector. The subsequent use of an alpha-track radiographic image analysis system enabled a discrimination between alpha tracks and recoiled proton tracks by the track size selection method. This enabled us to estimate quantitatively the distributions of 10B concentrations within the tissue sections by comparing with suitable standards.