Boron Neutron Capture Therapy: a New View on the Cancer Treatment

Among the various diseases that affect humanity, cancer is one of the most difficult diseases to be treated, being the second leading cause of worldwide death. Therefore, new forms of treatment are being studied aiming to improve the survival conditions of cancer bearer, or even taking them to cure. A new form of treatment that is receiving prominence is Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). The BNCT is a binary treatment that consists in the administration of compounds containing the 10B nuclid with subsequent irradiation of epithermal neutrons in the tumor region. The BNCT principle was first proposed in 1936, but it was only between 1951 and 1961 that the therapy was tested on human patients. The first tests with sodium tetraborate did not obtain satisfactory results and for this reason the therapy was disregarded for the cancer treatment. In the 1990s, new tests with the compounds sodium borocaptate (BSH - Na2B12H11SH) and borophenylalanine (BPA) have shown motivating results in clinical trials, and because of these efforts, more efficient compounds have been produced for BNCT. This article describes the basic principles of BNCT, historical and prospects for research in the Brazil and the World.