The effectiveness of combining gadolinium and boron neutron capture therapy at the cellular level

The present study developed a program to investigate the effectiveness of combining gadolinium and boron neutron capture therapy at the cellular level. The program can automatically generate a 3D random cell array for the Monte Carlo code PHITS. It can create a cell array with random cell shape, size, structure distribution, and cell rotation to build as realistic human cell models as possible. The cell array is utilized to calculate the distribution of 157Gd or/and 10B in different cell structures. It also examines the scenario of two separate drug injections: first, administering BPA for irradiation, followed by the injection of 157Gd for subsequent irradiation. In both cases, the distribution of drugs within the cell structures is assumed to be random. The results showed that 1000 ppm of the 157Gd uniformly filling the whole-cell array and 65 ppm of BPA exhibited a comparable biologically equivalent dose at the cellular level. The biological equivalent dose significantly increases when gadolinium drugs enter the nucleus. Incorporating 157Gd into the nucleus can provide a sufficient therapeutic effect, making the combination of gadolinium and boron neutron capture therapy a promising approach for neutron capture therapy.