Reporting Dose in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy

Abstract

Reporting needs uniformity in definitions and terminology. This is crucial in order to be able to compare and aggregate clinical outcomes data across clinical trials. For decades, there is no standard for reporting dose in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Multiple efforts were made for a common language reporting BNCT, mostly suggesting to report at relevant points the different dose components separately. Although this was accepted by some but not all clinicians, the situation remains an unsatisfactory and cumbersome reporting system, leading to confusion. Another suggestion is made here by proposing not to report the results of calculations that use a site-specific model with certain assumptions, but to report the input parameters needed for such calculations regardless of the model used. This will be mainly the thermal neutron fluence integrated over the irradiation time T and the average ¹⁰B concentration integrated over T.

Keywords: SI units; boron neutron capture therapy; prescribing and reporting; weighting factors in BNCT.