Dose assessment with MCNP5/X code for boron neutron capture therapy of pancreas cancer

Abstract

Boron neutron capture therapy is based on neutron capture by 10B and creation of high energy alpha particle and recoiled 7Li ion which have ranges comparable to cell dimensions. The MCNP5/X code is applied for calculation of the absorbed doses as well as dose distribution by depth in pancreas cancer and the organs of the analytical and voxelized Oak Ridge National Laboratory phantom, which represents the human body. The depth dose distributions for thermal, epithermal neutrons, and neutron spectrum, show that the absorbed doses are the largest exactly in the cancer, in all cases. It is found by this simulation that the epithermal neutrons are the optimal choice for BNC therapy. They deliver a similar dose to cancer as the thermal neutrons but, spare the healthy tissue more than the thermal ones.