Feasibility study of optical imaging of the boron‐dose distribution by a liquid scintillator in a clinical boron neutron capture therapy field

Background Evaluation of the boron dose is essential for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Nevertheless, a direct evaluation method for the boron‐dose distribution has not yet been established in the clinical BNCT field. To date, even in quality assurance (QA) measurements, the boron dose has been indirectly evaluated from the thermal neutron flux measured using the activation method with gold foil or wire and an assumed boron concentration in the QA procedure. Recently, we successfully conducted optical imaging of the boron‐dose distribution using a cooled charge‐coupled device (CCD) camera and a boron‐added liquid scintillator at the E‐3 port facility of the Kyoto University Research Reactor (KUR), which supplies an almost pure thermal neutron beam with very low gamma‐ray contamination. However, in a clinical accelerator‐based BNCT facility, there is a concern that the boron‐dose distribution may not be accurately extracted because the unwanted luminescence intensity, which is irrelevant to the boron dose is expected to increase owing to the contamination of fast neutrons and gamma rays. Purpose The purpose of this research was to study the validity of a newly proposed method using a boron‐added liquid scintillator and a cooled CCD camera to directly observe the boron‐dose distribution in a clinical accelerator‐based BNCT field. Method A liquid scintillator phantom with 10B was prepared by filling a small quartz glass container with a commercial liquid scintillator and boron‐containing material (trimethyl borate); its natural boron concentration was 1 wt%. Luminescence images of the boron‐neutron capture reaction were obtained in a water tank at several different depths using a CCD camera. The contribution of background luminescence, mainly due to gamma rays, was removed by subtracting the luminescence images obtained using another sole liquid scintillator phantom (natural boron concentration of 0 wt%) at each corresponding depth, and a depth profile of the boron dose with several discrete points was obtained. The obtained depth profile was compared with that of calculated boron dose, and those of thermal neutron flux which were experimentally measured or calculated using a Monte Carlo code. Results The depth profile evaluated from the subtracted images indicated reasonable agreement with the calculated boron‐dose profile and thermal neutron flux profiles, except for the shallow region. This discrepancy is thought to be due to the contribution of lig