Speaker
Description
Polish R&D program for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) started in 2001 and is presently coordinated by the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) at Świerk/Otwock. The program aims to put in operation the dedicated research BNCT beam line at Maria reactor at Świerk and to offer this beam for R&D related to BNCT. At present, the interest of physicians in the project is limited since no clinical activities are planned.
There is an increasing interest worldwide in BNCT due to progress in construction of cheap and efficient accelerator-based sources of epithermal neutrons. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that there is a sufficient technological and medical competence to build in Poland within 5-8 years a hospital based accelerator facility for BNCT. Relatively small installation can be located in an existing oncological clinic e.g. in central Poland. In parallel, the neutron beam at NCBJ can be very useful for research, training, calibration etc. Broadening the scope of the Polish BNCT project towards the clinical application can give some more impetus for our activities.
