A few additional comments on liver BNCT treatment with explantation of the organ, from the BNCT listserv.
Jaro
From: Barry Allen [mailto:b.allen@UNSW.EDU.AU]
Sent: Friday February 22, 2002 10:00 PM
To: BNCT@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: First procedure on the explanted human liver
The only work that I know off re epithermal BNCT of the liver are our MC
calculations where we found that under typical conditions with two
orthogonal epithermal beams and 30 ppm boron, the liver can be treated but
the posterior liver treatment could be marginal. (Allen, Wallace, Carolan,
Zurich proceedings Vol1, p118-121).
Barry Allen
From: Grazia Gambarini [mailto:grazia.gambarini@MI.INFN.IT]
Sent: Sunday February 24, 2002 6:16 AM
To: BNCT@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: First procedure on the explanted human liver
You can find a general description (principle and advantages) of the
method for liver BNCT treatment with explantation of the organ, on the
Proceedings of La Jolla Symposium (1998) "Frontiers in Neutron Capture Therapy" p.1427-1440.
Best wishes
Grazia
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Prof. Grazia GAMBARINI
Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Università
via Celoria 16 - 20133 Milano, ITALY
tel. +39-02-50317243 fax +39-02-50317630
e.mail grazia.gambarini@mi.infn.it
URL: http://users.unimi.it/~frixy
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From: Robert Zamenhof [mailto:rzamenho@CAREGROUP.HARVARD.EDU]
Sent: Friday February 22, 2002 1:04 PM
To: BNCT@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: First procedure on the explanted human liver
I believe that the liver had to be explanted primarily because the
investigators only have a thermal neutron facility at their disposal, which
would preclude an "in situ" irradiation of the liver. Even if an epithermal
beam were available, the experiment as performed bypasses a number of
"hurdles" while not necessarily subjecting the patient to any additional risk.
I would really like to know, if our colleagues in Italy could release such
information, what the histology of the tumors was and what the measured
tumor-to-normal liver boron ratios were.
Congratulations to our Italian colleagues for this tremendous
achievement...we get a little bored talking about "brain BNCT" all the time,
so it is fantastic that a new approach such as this has been tried! Do you
plan to put more patients through this protocol soon, or will you wait and
do long-term followup on this first patient?
All the best,
Robert
> Robert G. Zamenhof, Ph.D.
> Chief, Radiological Physics Section
> Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
> Dana Building Rm. 705
> 330 Brookline Avenue
> Boston, MA 02215
> Tel: (617) 667-0175
> Fax: (617) 975-5233
> E-mail: rzamenho@caregroup.harvard.edu