Alternative cancer treatments
Since the 1940s, medical science has developed chemotherapy, radiation therapy, adjuvant therapy and the newer targeted therapies, as well as refined surgical techniques for removing cancer. Before the development of these modern, evidence-based treatments, 90% of cancer patients died within five years. With modern mainstream treatments, only 34% of cancer patients die within five years. However, while mainstream forms of cancer treatment generally prolong life or permanently cure cancer, most treatments also have side effects ranging from unpleasant to fatal, such as pain, blood clots, fatigue, and infection. These side effects and the lack of a guarantee that treatment will be successful create appeal for alternative treatments for cancer, which purport to cause fewer side effects or to increase survival rates despite evidence to suggest a 2–5 fold increase in death with alternative medicines.
Neutron capture therapy of cancer
Neutron capture therapy (NCT) is a noninvasive therapeutic modality for treating locally invasive malignant tumors such as primary brain tumors and recurrent head and neck cancer. Briefly summarized, it is a two-step procedure: "first", the patient is injected with a tumor-localizing drug containing the non-radioactive isotope boron-10 (B) that has a high propensity or cross section (σ) to capture slow neutrons. The cross section of the B is many times greater than that of the other elements present in tissues such as hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. In the "second" step, the patient is radiated with epithermal neutrons, the source of which is either a nuclear reactor or, more recently, an accelerator. After losing energy as they penetrate tissue, the neutrons are absorbed by the capture agent, which subsequently emits high-energy charged particles that can selectively kill tumor cells that have taken up sufficient quantities of B.