Present Status of the Three-Dimensional Treatment Planning Methodologies for the Petten BNCT Facility

Abstract

Traditional treatment planning systems for photon and fast neutron irradiations invariably rely on one or two dimensional computer models often with a significant number of empirical adjustments to obtain realistic results. Several aspects of BNCT mean that the use of approximate one- and two-dimensional treatment planning tools may be inadequate. In particular the epithermal neutrons entering the target region travel only very short distances before being scattered or absorbed in the medium which is very different from the situation with photons or fast neutrons. Thus an initially parallel beam diverges very rapidly within the target. The result is a “cloud” of neutrons of various energies distributed throughout the target volume.