Boron chemistry and its application to cancer treatment was presented. Boron is a metalloid that exists in different forms and has various uses including cancer therapy. Boron neutron capture therapy involves injecting a boron compound that collects in tumor cells, then exposing the area to neutron radiation. This causes a nuclear reaction that releases particles to destroy tumor cells while sparing healthy cells. The presentation covered boron properties, delivery agents, neutron sources, and how BNCT works by having high-energy particles kill cancer cells after the boron selectively accumulates in tumors.

1. Presented by
Mohd Maz
Enrollment No. 1800102001

2. BORON CHEMISTRY AND
APPLICATION TO CANCER
TREATMENT

3. Boron Chemistry
 Boron is the element of group 13(IIIA), having atomic
number 5 and atomic mass 10.811.
 First ,Boron was mentioned in book of Persian alchemist
Rhazes (c 865-c 925)
 In 1892, French Chemist Henri Moissan produced boron
that was 98% pure.

5. BORON

6. PROPERTIES
It is a semiconductors ,characteristics of both metals and
non metal. The abundance of boron is very low,
approximately10-9 times that of hydrogen and around 10-6
of carbon and oxygen.
Physical properties
 It occurs in many physical forms called allotropes.
 Boron atoms are able to absorb a large number of neutrons.
 Two types of isotopes of boron exist,boron-10 and boron-
11. Three radioactive isotopes of boron are known also.

7.  Boron is allotropic and exists as a powder or a
metal-like substance
 color ranges from a dark brown to black powder or a jet-
black to silver-gray metal-like element.
 crystalline form is very hard, lustrous, but brittle.
 All forms of boron have very high melting points.
Chemical properties
 unreactive towards the air
 unreactive when comes in contact with acids and
alkalis at moderate temperatures
 The boron family reacts with halogens to form
Trihalide

8. Electron configuration: [He] 2s22p1
Electrons per shell: 2,3
Element Category: Metalloid.
Density: 2.08g/cm3.
Melting Point: 3769 F (2076 C)
Boiling Point: 7101 F (3927 C)

9. Uses of Boron
 used to make alloys and alloys are used to make strong
magnets .These magnets are used in microphones,
loudspeakers, headphones and switches.
 used in nuclear rods for controlling the fast moving
neutrons.
 Boron is proved to be used in cancer treatment,.Boron-
10 particularly.
 Boron occurs in many vegetables, fruits and in nuts.

10.  Sodium tetraborate decahydrate or borax is the most
important compound of boron, which is used to insulate
fiberglass and sodium perborate bleach.
 Boric acid is one of the important compounds in textile
products. Boron compounds are also used in organic
synthesis, a particular type of glass manufacture and as a
wood preservative.
 Borax was earlier used to make perborate, which is the
bleaching agent widely used in some detergents.
 Boron compounds are also found in homes in the form of
food preservatives, especially for fish and margarine.

11. Boron for Cancer
 Boron is an element that has proved to be effective in
cancer treatment due to its property to absorb the
neutrons.
 The therapy that is used against cancer treatment is
known as Boron Neutron Capture Therapy.
What is cancer
 Rapidly dividing abnormal cells that have the capacity to
reproduce themselves faster than the normal cells.
 Rapidly dividing cells form tumors, crowd organs and
stop some organ function.

13. Symptoms of cancer
 Abnormal vaginal bleeding
 Changes in intestine movements
 Rectal bleeding
 Persistent cough
 Shortness of breath
 Pain occurring anywhere in body, especially a pain felt as a
deep ache
 Persistent, severe fatigue
 Skin changes
 Abdominal swelling
 Blood in urine
 Difficulty ingestion

14. CAUSES OF
CANCER
Physical
inactivit
y
Excess
body
weight
Poor
nutritio
n
Heavy
alcohol
consump
tion

15. BORON NEUTRON CAPTURE THERPY
 BNCT is an ideal technique to kill cancer cells selectively
without harming cancer cells which is based on the reaction
of non-radioactive boron-10 nuclei capturing slow neutrons to
yield high-LET alpha particles, recoiling Li-7 and Gamma rays.
 BNCT proposed to treat the patients of glioblastoma
multiforme (GBMs).
 GBMs is a type of malignant tumor of brain involving the glial
cells.52% is functional brain tissue and 20% intercrainial
tumors.
 Also shown its ability to treat other cancers, like neck cancer,
liver cancer, melanomas and thyroid cancers

16. BASIC PRINCIPLE OF BNCT
 A substance that contains boron is injected into a blood
vessel.
 The boron collects in tumor cells.
 The patient then receives radiation therapy with atomic
particles called neutrons.
 The neutrons react with the boron to kill the tumor cells
without harming normal cells.

17. They have a high linear energy transfer (LET) values as
well. Thus high energy released in the tumor cell while
normal cells outside the tumor cells survive.

19. 1- Boron-10 delivery agents
Two boron drugs have been used clinically,
 Sodium borocaptate (Na2B12H11SH)
 Dihydroxyboryl derivative of
called boronophenylalanine
Two Major
factors of BNCT
1- Boron-10
delivery agents
2- Neutrons
sources

20. • Important requirements for a BNCT delivery agent
1. low intrinsic toxicity;
2. high tumor uptake (~ 20–50 μg 10B) and low normal
tissue uptake.
3. Relatively rapid clearance from blood and normal
tissues

21. Neutrons sources
Two types of neutrons are used for BNCT
1- Thermal neutrons
2- Epithermal neutrons
1. Thermal Neutrons
 They have energies of approximately 0.025eV are used in BNCT.
 Cannot penetrate into deep tumors due to only 2.5cm penetration
range of them within the tissues surface.
 Suitable for superficial tumor treatments, such as BNCT
treatment for melanoma which is type of skin cancer.

22. 2. Epithermal Neutron
 Epithermal neutrons have energies (1-10,000eV) beams
can deeply penetrate the tissue 3-6cm below the
surface.
 Used to treat deep inside the tumor cells.
 At present, neutron beams are extracted from the
uranium-235 fission reaction within a nuclear reactor
(Walker, 1998).

24. THANKS FOR
LISTENING