Boron neutron capture therapy of cerebral gliomas. II. Utilization of the blood-brain barrier and tumor-specific antigens for the selective concentration of boron in gliomas.

The use of the blood-brain barrier and of tumor-specific antibodies to concentrate boron selectivity in gliomas for neutron capture therapy is considered experimentally and theoretically. The time-dependent concentration of two anionic boranes, B12 H11 SH2- and B12 H11 SOSB12 H114-, in the blood, brain, and tumor of rats bearing a tumor of gliomatous origin is reported. The rate of clearance of each anionic borane from the blood is correlated with the fraction of non-protein bound anion in the plasma. The use of antibodies to carry therapeutical useful amounts of boron to tumor-specific or tumor-associated antigens on the tumor cell surface will require different numbers of boron atoms bound per antibody depending on several immunological and physical parameters. Calculations using published values of antibody-antigen association constants and of cell surface antigen densities predict that in order to obtain 10mug 10B/g tumor from 10 to over 10,000 boron-10 atoms will have to be bound per tumor antigenic site.