Biological Distribution in Patients of Boron Agent 4-Borono-L-Phenylalanine for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy

Boron neutron capture therapy(BNCT) is a binary targeted radiation therapy in which neutron does not directly provide tumor dose. The dose produced by the ¹⁰B(n, α)⁷Li capture reaction will be deposited in tumor cells by using targeted ¹⁰B agents. Therefore, understanding the biological distribution of ¹⁰B agents in the blood, tumor and normal tissue is essential for BNCT. 4-borono-L-phenylalanine(BPA) is the mainly used ¹⁰B agent in BNCT clinical trials worldwide. In order to support and facilitate the preparation of BPA-based BNCT clinical trials, information on the structure, physicochemical properties, cellular uptake mechanisms and human biological distribution of BPA are summarized in this paper.