BORON AND IT’S

APPLICATION TO
CANCER TREATMENT
ST. XAVIER’S COLLEGE, AHMEDABAD
PRESENTED BY VANSH MEHTA
ROLL NO – 21-CH-0007
APPROVED BY FRANCIS SIR
Contents
 Introduction about Boron
 Characteristics of Boron
 Uses Of Boron
 What is Cancer?
 Boron For Cancer Treatment
 History of BNCT
 Principal of BNCT
 Merits & Demerits of BNCT
BORON CHEMISTRY
 Boron is the element of group 13, having Atomic number 5 and
Atomic mass 10.811
 In 1892, French Chemist Henri Moissan Produced boron that
was 98% pure
 The Origin of boron is attributed to Big Bang or Galactic
Cosmic Rays events as well as the formation of Lithium and
Beryllium
 It is a semi Conductor, Characteristic of both metals and Non
Metals
 The Abundance of boron is very low, approximately 10-9 times
that of hydrogen and around 10-6 of carbon and oxygen
Physical Properties of Boron
 Boron Exist in Two Forms,

1. Amorphous Boron
 Amorphous form of Boron is present in a finely divided powder
 Density is 2.45g/cm³
 Pure Amorphous Boron is a brown powder
2) Crystalline Solid
 It is a hard and Black Colored Non-metallic solid
 It has an unusually high melting point because of the very strong
Crystal Lattice. In contrast, the rest of the members are soft in
nature and have low melting point.
 It occurs in many physicals forms called as allotropes
 It Forms four major allotropes:-
1. α-rhombohedral
2. β-rhombohedral
3. β-tetragonal
4. γ-orthorhombic
 Chemical Properties of Boron
 Solubility of Boron and Boron Compounds
Under normal circumstances Boron does not react with water
However for Boron Compounds may be the case. Boron salts are
generally well water soluble.
Boric acid has a water solubility of 57g/L, Borax of 25.2g/L, and
Boron trioxide of 22g/L. Boron triflouride is the least water-soluble
Boron compound with a water solubility of 2.4g/L some Boron
Compounds such as Boron nitrite are completely water insoluble
Isotopes of Boron
 Atoms of the same element but different mass number.
 There are two stable isotopes of boron is present:-
1. Boron-10 (¹⁰B):- it has 5p and 5n, it’s quantity is
19.78%
2. Boron-11 (¹¹B):- it has 5p and 6n, it’s quantity is
80.22%
Boron has a total of 11 known isotopes ranging from ⁷B
to ¹⁷B
 Uses of Boron
1. Boron is used to make alloys which are used to makes strong
magnets
2. These magnets are used in microphones, loudspeakers, headphones
and switches
3. Boron used in nuclear Rods for controlling the fast moving neutrons
4. Boric acid is used as Antiseptic, Food Preservatives
5. Borates are used as brightener in washing powders
6. Borazine is used to form carbon based explosive
7. Boron is provided to be used In cancer treatment Boron-10
Particularly
What is Cancer?
Cancer is caused by the rapidly dividing abnormal cells that the
potential to reproduce themselves faster than the normal cells
These rapidly dividing cells forms tumors, crowd organs and
shutdown some organ functions

Boron for Cancer

Boron is an element that has provided 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
History of Bnct
 The first study of charged particles from slow neutron
irradiated of Boron was completed at Cambridge University in
December 1934
 USA used irradiated Boron for cancer treatment
 In 1938, first radiobiological study was carried out by using
neutron and 10B reaction at the University of Illinois
 In 1960, Hatanaka in Japan confirmed that BNCT has
advantages for patient’s treatment of certain cancers by
comparing between BNCT and conventional chemo-immuno-
radiotherapy
Principal of BNCT
Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is used to treat mainly
headaches and neck cancer
The patient is injected with this non-radioactive isotope boron-10
which concentrate in the tumor
The Boron in the tumor is irradiated with low energy neutron
which converts B-10 to its unstable isotope B-11, whose
Decomposition releases highly reactive alpha particles and Li 7
particles
Advantage of BNCT
1. Its treatment time is only about 3 days, compared to 6
weeks for conventional radiotherapy
2. No serious side effects have been reported after BNCT
3. A possibility to destroy tumor without highly
traumatic surgical operation
4. A possibility to give high radiation doses in malignant
cells and at that do not destroy healthy ones
Disadvantages of BNCT
1. With Regards to biological effects fast neutron therapy is more
complex than conventional radio therapy
2. Thermal neutron are attenuated rapidly in tissue due to
absorption and scattering and their useful depth of penetrating
for NCT therapy is limitations to 3-4 cm this means that only
superficial tumors would be destroyed by the B-10 capture
reaction
3. Clinical interest in BNCT has focused primarily on the
treatment of high grade gliomas and melanomas, most recently,
head and neck and liver cancer
References:-

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC529658
8/
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339301718_B
oron_Chemistry_for_Medical_Applications
 https://youtu.be/cQrbfBiQpfk