Procedural and practical applications of radiation measurements for BNCT at the HFR Petten R.L. Moss a, * , F. Stecher-Rasmussen b , J. Rassow c , J. Morrissey a , W. Voorbraak b , W. Verbakel b , K. Appelman b , G.G. Daquino a,d , L. Muzi d , A. Wittig c , E. Bourhis-Martin c , W. Sauerwein c a HFR Unit, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, P.O. Box 2, Westerduinweg 3, 1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands b Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group, NRG, Petten, The Netherlands c Universit€ atsklinikum, Essen, Germany d University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy Abstract Since October 1997, a clinical trial of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) for glioblastoma patients has been in progress at the High Flux Reactor, Petten, the Netherlands. The trial is a European Organisation for Re- search and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) protocol (#11 961) and, as such, must be conducted following the highest quality management and procedures, according to good clinical practice and also other internationally accepted codes. The complexity of BNCT involves not only strict international procedures, but also a variety of techniques to measure the different aspects of the irradiation involved when treating the patient. Applications include: free beam measurements using packets of activation foils; in-phantom measurements for beam calibration using ionisation chambers, pn-diodes and activation foils; monitoring of the irradiation beam during patient treatment using fission chambers and GM-counters; boron in blood measurements using prompt gamma ray spectroscopy; radiation pro- tection of the patient and staff using portable radiation dosimeters and personal dosimeters; and in vivo measure- ments of the boron in the patient using a prompt gamma ray telescope. The procedures and applications of such techniques are presented here, with particular emphasis on the importance of the quality assurance/quality control procedures and its reporting. Ó 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Boron neutron capture therapy; HFR Petten; Radiation protection; Radiotherapy 1. Introduction The first clinical trial in Europe of Boron Neu- tron Capture Therapy (BNCT) for the treatment of glioblastoma started in October 1997 at the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten, the Netherlands [1]. BNCT is based on the ability of the isotope 10 B to capture thermal neutrons and to disintegrate in- stantaneously producing two high linear energy transfer (LET) particles (He and Li nuclei), with high kinetic energy of about 2.5 MeV and a very short range in tissue of about 10 lm[ 10 Bðn; aÞ 7 Li]. * Corresponding author. Fax: +31-224-565615. E-mail address: raymond.moss@jrc.nl (R.L. Moss). 0168-583X/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0168-583X(03)01666-5 Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 213 (2004) 633–636 www.elsevier.com/locate/nimb