BNCT at MIT

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Research

Boron neutron capture therapy [BNCT] is a promising experimental form of cancer therapy. It is a binary therapy which involves the administration of a drug containing the boron isotope B-10 and subsequent irradiation of the cancer site with a neutron beam. The drug is designed to concentrate preferentially in cancer cells. When the neutrons are captured in the B-10 the resulting high energy particles deposit their energy locally, within a range of about one human cell diameter. Therefore BNCT can be thought of as radiation therapy which targets cancer at the cellular level. In principle cancer cells can receive much higher radiation doses than normal tissue cells even if the normal cells are microscopically close to the cancer cells. In conventional radiation therapy, using for example x-rays, the radiation dose to cancer cells and to adjacent healthy cells is equal. Thus BNCT maybe able to control cancers where the tumor cells infiltrate normal tissue or cancers which are particularly resistant to conventional modes of therapy. Such cancers include glioblastoma multeforme, [GBM], a particularly deadly form of brain cancer and metastatic melanoma.

Researchers at the MIT Reactor have been involved in BNCT research for many years. MIT and Brookhaven National Laboratories were the two original pioneers in BNCT. At MIT the facilities for BNCT are unequaled elsewhere in the world. The current BNCT research program at MIT is carried out in association with collaborating medical researchers at the Harvard Medical School affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, [BIDMC]. This program is the leading BNCT research program in the USA and the only US program which is licensed for human clinical trials. Unfortunately, our two clinical trials are now closed and we are hoping to initiate new protocols in the near future.   MIT is engaged in a wide variety of BNCT research designed to improve the effectiveness of this experimental therapy. MIT also is able to support non-MIT researchers in BNCT by making its reactor based neutron facilities available to qualified researchers.

 For further information about the MIT research program, BNCT facilities or current clinical trials please contact appropriate individuals in People .

 

Students 

Recent Graduate Students

William S. Kiger
MS (1996) PhD (2000)		 Kent Riley
MS (1996) PhD (2001)
Shuichi Sakamoto
MS (1997)		 Terry Tak-Keon Lee
MS (1997)
John T. Goorley
MS (1998) PhD (2001)		 Michelle N. Ledesma
MS (1998)
Balendra Sutharshan
PhD (1998)		 Cynthia F. Chuang
PhD (1999)
Indra Djutrisno
MS (1999)		 Jerry R. White
MS (1999)
William W. Carson IV
MS (2000)		 Jameel Ali
MS (2001)
Benjamin Allen Wilson
MS (2001)
Wei Gao
MS (2005)
 Jingli Liu
MS (2003)


Current Students

Jingli Kiger (Ph. D.)
 Tom Harris (Ph. D.)
Yoonsun Chung (Ph. D.) William Shuller (Ph. D.)


 

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