What is the best proton energy for accelerator-based BNCT using the 7Li(p,n)7Be reaction?

With a growing interest in the use of accelerator-based epithermal neutron sources for BNCT programs, in particular those based upon the Li-7(p,n)Be-7 reaction, there is a need to address the question of "what is the best proton energy to use?" This paper considers this question by using radiation transport calculations to investigate a range of proton energies from 2.15 to 3.5 MeV and a range of moderator sizes. This study has moved away completely from the use of empty therapy beam parameters and instead defines the beam quality and optimizes the moderator design using widely accepted in-phantom treatment planning figures of merit. It is concluded that up to a proton energy of about 2.8 MeV there is no observed variation in the achievable therapy beam quality, but a price is paid in terms of treatment time for not choosing the upper limit of this range. For higher proton energies, the beam quality falls, but with no improvement in treatment time for optimum configurations. (C) 2000 American Association of Physicists in Medicine. [S0094-2405(00)00605-2].