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Accelerator Based Neutron Sources for BNCT - a Resurrection?

Kolloquium der Abteilung 6

For decades the clinical use of BNCT was limited due to the need of reactor-based neutron sources, which were often located at unacceptable distances from the hospital. Recently, hospital-based accelerators have become available leading to a renaissance of this modality. Commercial solutions for such epithermal neutron sources with high intensity are available. On one hand is the interest in BNCT inside the medical community rapidly growing, on the other hand, the challenges linked to the complexity of the treatment are heavily underestimated. The talk gives a clinicians view on some of the hurdles that have to be overcome to make BNCT a safe and reliable treatment.