Revision 1

Accepted · first revision · record

Title: Real-time imaging of boron concentration during irradiation
Plain: Each boron capture emits a gamma ray of a specific energy, which could in principle be used to map the boron during treatment. A working scanner that does this accurately in a patient does not exist.
Precise: Image the B-10 concentration in tissue during neutron irradiation through the 478 keV gamma line from the Li-7 excited state, with 10 percent accuracy in concentration, about 5 mm spatial resolution and a frame time of minutes, against the intense background of 2.2 MeV hydrogen-capture gammas and neutron-induced detector activation. An answer is a demonstrated detector and reconstruction method with these figures in a patient-sized phantom.
Settled by: Phantom measurements with known boron distributions in a clinical epithermal beam showing the stated concentration accuracy and resolution.
Kind: well-posed
Answer type: value
References: (empty)
Literature status: open
Status note: Prompt-gamma tomography prototypes for neutron capture therapy were in development without clinical use.
Posed since: (empty)