A Polish Research Company proposes a Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). BNCT is used as a cancer therapy (mainly for brain tumours). The malignant tissue is attacked with boron-10 by means of boron carriers and this is followed by exposure to slow neutrons. The new equipment allows the investigation of the efficiency of new boron carriers in live cancer cells (in vitro) by irradiation in a slow neutron field. They are looking for a technical co-operation or a commercial agreement.

Although neutron capture therapy was proposed more than 50 years ago and tried clinically in the 50's and 60's and since that time in Japan, it has only recently entered re-evaluation in different countries. The reasons for a new interest in neutron capture therapy are as follows:
- The realisation that thermal neutrons were too low in energy for practical radiotherapy and the development of epithermal neutron beams with sufficient penetration for treatment of, at least, brain and head and neck and some other tumours.

- Development of new compounds that partition into tumours with ratios of greater than 3 and the potential for compounds that partition with ratios of 10-20 or higher.

- Newer methods of measuring boron concentration in tissues and tumours, both through biopsy and non-invasive methods.

- The potential for high current accelerator-based sources of epithermal neutrons making NCT a hospital-based treatment modality.

The idea behind BNCT is straightforward. A tumour-seeking compound containing boron-10, a non-radioactive isotope, is introduced into the brain and given time to accumulate in the tumour. The tumour is then exposed to a beam of neutrons, which are "captured" or absorbed by the boron-10. Capturing neutrons causes the boron nuclei to break apart, resulting in the emission of alpha radiation and lithium nuclei. Both alpha-particles and lithium are high in energy but short in range, which means they destroy the malignant cells in which boron-10 is imbedded without hurting the adjacent healthy cells

Innovative Aspects:
The thermostatic reactor probe allows for irradiation of samples of biological materials e.g. live cancer cells in vitro. It also makes it possible to investigate of effectiveness of boron-10 carriers in BNCT. The biological effect is investigated as a measure of carrier effectiveness rather than concentration of B-10 in malignant tissue.

Main Advantages:
- Possibility of investigation in vitro.
- Research of global effectiveness of B-10 carriers for BNCT purposes
- Reduced side effects (gamma and fast neutron background).

• Cytology, Cancerology, Oncology
• Medical devices (instrumentation, medical imaging, radiology)
• Medical Research
• Medical Technology / Biomedical Engineering
• Pharmaceutical Products / Drugs
• In vitro Testing, Trials

• Medicine, health
• Pharmaceutical/Comestics

• Therapeutic
• Therapeutic services
• Other therapeutic (including defibrillators)
• Other Medical/Health Related
• Other medical/health related (not elsewhere classified)

• Technical Co-operation
• Commercial Agreement with Technical Assistance