Page 91 - ARNM-2-3

Advances in Radiotherapy &

Nuclear Medicine

MINI-REVIEW
Cancer radiotherapy with mini neutron/gamma-

ray generators

1,2
Ka-Ngo Leung * and James K. Leung 2
1 Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of
America
2 Berkion Technology LLC, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Abstract

Recent advancements in negative hydrogen (H-) or negative deuterium (D-) ion
source technology as well as the commercial availability of high-frequency AC high-
voltage power supplies have enabled the development of mini neutron/gamma-
ray generators using low-energy nuclear reactions. These generators can provide a
useful flux of high-energy neutrons or gamma photons in either pulsed or continuous
operations. With the new mini generator, intraoperative radiotherapy as well as
treatment of tumors in the brain, skin, breast, salivary gland, pancreas, liver, and
kidney can be performed using external or internal neutron/gamma-ray beams. The
new radiotherapy system is very compact and requires very low power for operation,
enabling its location inside an operation room of a hospital or clinical facility.

Keywords: Neutron; Gamma-ray; Cancer therapy; Intraoperative radiotherapy;
Brain tumor; Boron neutron capture therapy
*Corresponding author:
Ka-Ngo Leung
(kangoleung@pacbell.net)
Citation: Leung K, Leung JK. 1. Introduction
Cancer radiotherapy with mini
neutron/gamma-ray generators. Radiotherapy tools based on photons or electrons are commonly used in clinical facilities.
Adv Radiother Nucl Med.
2024;2(3):3920. Most superficial cancers have been treated with low- or high-energy X-ray machines
doi: 10.36922/arnm.3920 and electron accelerators, unfortunately, with little effectiveness. Neutron radiation
Received: June 12, 2024 therapy is a high linear energy transfer (LET) type of radiation with a higher relative
biological effectiveness (RBE) compared to conventional X-ray therapy. Fast neutrons
Accepted: July 23, 2024
are very effective in the treatment of some types of tumors such as refractory Merkel cell
Published Online: September 5, carcinoma and malignant salivary gland tumors. So far, the neutrons used for radiation
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2024 therapy are mostly provided by fission reactors or accelerator-based neutron sources.
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). Since these systems are large and accessibility is difficult, neutrons are not commonly
This is an Open-Access article employed in cancer therapy treatments.
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution The development of compact and high-flux neutron/gamma-ray generators for
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, radiotherapy has only occurred in recent years. Martellini et al. have recently reported
provided the original work is a radiofrequency (RF)-driven D ion-based d-d neutron generator for intraoperative
+
properly cited. radiotherapy (IORT) purposes. Persuad et al. tested a tandem accelerator-based gamma
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Publisher’s Note: AccScience generator for producing 6- and 7-MeV gammas from the p- F reaction. However,
Publishing remains neutral with the size of this gamma generator is not small and the flux is too low to be useful for
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional radiotherapy. Recent experimental investigations demonstrated that a substantial
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−
affiliations amount of H /D ions can be produced by thermal desorption processes. Based on
Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/arnm.3920