In-vitro and microdosimetric study of proton boron capture therapy and neutron capture enhanced proton therapy

Objective. The clinical advantage of proton therapy, compared to other types of irradiations, lies in its reduced dose to normal tissue. Still, proton therapy faces challenges of normal tissue toxicity and radioresistant tumors. To combat these challenges, proton boron capture therapy (PBCT) and neutron capture enhanced particle therapy (NCEPT) were proposed to introduce high-LET radiation in the target volume. Approach. In this work, we performed in-vitro experiments with a V79 cell line to validate PBCT and introduced a novel approach to use NCEPT in proton therapy. We quantified the effectiveness of PBCT and NCEPT with microdosimetric measurements, Monte-Carlo simulations and microdosimetric kinetic RBE model (MKM). Main results. No RBE increase was observed for PBCT. With the use of a tungsten spallation source, enough neutrons were generated in the incoming proton beam to measure significant neutron capture in the microdosimeter. However, no significant increase of RBE was detected when conventional in vitro protocol was followed. The resulting cell deactivation based RBE for NCEPT was found to be heavily dependent on which criteria was used to determine surviving colonies. Significance. PBCT and NCEPT are two proposed treatment modalities that may have the potential to expand the cases in which proton therapy can be beneficial. Understanding the scope of these treatment methods and developing measurement protocols to evaluate and understand their RBE impact are the first step to quantify their potential in clinical context.