BINP SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
Budker INP & NSU, Novosibirsk, Russia
NSU, Novosibirsk, Russia
A promising method of treatment of many malignant tumors is the boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT)*. It provides a selective destruction of tumor cells by prior accumulation of a stable boron-10 isotope inside them and subsequent irradiation with epithermal neutrons. It is expected that accelerator based neutron sources will be created for the clinical practice. One such source could be an original source of epithermal neutrons**, created in BINP. To obtain proton beam a new type of particle accelerator is used - tandem accelerator with vacuum insulation. Generation of neutrons is carried out as a result of the threshold reaction 7Li(p, n)7Be. During 2015-2016 in the construction of tandem accelerator with vacuum insulation several changes were made. This allowed us to suppress the unwanted flow of charged particles in the accelerator, to improve its high-voltage stability, and to increase the proton beam current from 1.6 to 5 mA. Such current value is sufficient for BNCT. The report describes in detail the modernization of the accelerator, presents and discusses the results of experiments on obtaining the proton beam and the formation of neutron flux using lithium target, and declares our prospective plans. The obtained neutron beam meets the requirements of BNCT: the irradiation of cell cultures provides the destruction of cells with boron and preservation of cells without boron. Irradiation of immunodeficient mice with grafted glioblastoma results in their recovery.
*Neutron Capture Therapy. Principles and Applications. Eds: W. Sauerwein, A. Wittig, R. Moss, Y. Nakagawa. Springer, 2012.
**S. Taskaev. Accelerator based epithermal neutron source. Physics of Particles and Nuclei 46 (2015) 956-990.
