December 2023.
Newsletter # 24
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Happy new year!
2023 is almost gone, but it left us many achievements.
The publication of the
IAEA book about BNCT.
6 newsletters, plus special communications. You can find them all
here.
Weekly posts on social media to share info about our ISNCT members and stay connected.
Interviews and videos from conferences at our
YouTube channel.
More than 700 papers in our
repository.
And our first ISNCT
webinar!
Now availble on Youtube, you can take a look to our first virtual gathering. We invite you to
propose speakers for 2024 webinars!
Let's celebrate the end of the year by sharing some exciting news. On this edition, you will read a message from the ISNCT President, the extension of the abstract submission for ICNCT-20.
You will also read a funding opportunity and the follow-up of several conferences. |
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Dr. Naonoi Hu shared his "Personal experience during the clinical commissioning of a BNCT facility and future prospects".
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Now... let's dive into this exciting news!
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Greetings from Prof Ignacio Porras
By Ingacio Porras.
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Dear Colleague,
On these dates I want to send you my most sincere wishes for a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2024.
As the writer Claudio Magris, distinguished with the Prince of Asturias Award for Letters, said, "thank you" and "hope" are two of the most beautiful words in all languages.
Dreams and ideals are fundamental in our lives and also in our daily tasks.
For this reason, I want to THANK, on behalf of the ISNCT, which promotes BNCT as a HOPE in the fight against cancer, to all of you for your valuable work towards this great goal.
THANK YOU for helping build a new HOPE.
A tender greeting
Ignacio Porras
President of the International Society for Neutron Capture Therapy
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Abstract extension for the ICNCT-20!
As we announced in a previous communication, the abstract submission for the ICNCT-20 has been extended:
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XI International Geant4 School
By Ian Postuma.
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From the 14th to the 19th of January we are inviting, MSc students,
PhD students, medical physicists, and young researchers
to the Geant4 school focused on medical applications organized in Pavia, Italy.
The school is a five-days hands-on Geant4 course. Geant4 is a Monte Carlo toolkit, written in C ++, for simulating particles traveling through matter. This toolkit is a multi-purpose software which is developed and maintained by an international
collaboration of scientists belonging to different institutions and backgrounds.
Geant4 can be used for applications in high energy physics, astrophysics, medical physics, particle astrophysics and nuclear physics and can be of interest for physicists and engineers working in BNCT.
The topics of this International Geant4 School will cover both high energy/nuclear physics and medical applications, with a focus on Geant4DNA, for the applications in radiobiology. Lectures will cover all aspects of the toolkit from basic installation through
advanced topics and will be interspersed with examples that build a progressively more complex application, extensible to real space and medical use.
A dedicated short C++ course is also included to get familiar participants with the basic elements of the Geant4 programming language.
A final test is foreseen for the release of a certificate for those interested. For PhD students who intend to choose this school as a course, a committee of professors will propose a final exam valid for the PhD plan of studies.
The fee for participation has been set at 350 Euro, including all the lunches, welcome cocktail, the social dinner, the social activities. More information can be found at:
https://agenda.infn.it/event/37741/
The website is under constant update for more information regarding hotels.
Should you need more details, feel free to contact silva.bortolussi@unipv.it , mariopietro.carante@unipv.it and/or ian.postuma@pv.infn.it.
We welcome young physicists to Pavia!
Ian Postuma, Mario Carante & Silva Bortolussi |
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Notice of special interest
Dear Colleagues,
NCI Radiation Research program along with our partners in NCI (CBIIT) and NIH (ODSS) wish to announce a new administrative supplement funding opportunity for Digital Twins in Radiation Oncology (DTRO).
The full NOSI is at
this link.
Today was the release of the
Digital Twin NASEM report.
Thank you.
The RRP Team.
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BNCT meetings at CNAO, follow-up.
By Ian Postuma.
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On October 11-13, a summit of the world's leading experts in Hadrontherapy and Boron Neutron Capture Therapy was held at CNAO in Pavia, Italy. The event, titled "Hadrontherapy: status and perspectives. Development of a hadrontherapy facility: learning from
the existing and Scientific day on BNCT", provided a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the latest developments in this advanced form of radiation therapy.
The meeting covered a wide range of topics related to hadrontherapy, including clinical indications, treatment planning, and new technologies. A particular focus was given to boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT), a promising new experimental methodology.
The BNCT session at the meeting featured presentations from world-renowned experts in the field, including:
-Wolfgang Sauerwein, on hadron therapy in radiation oncology and why BNCT is a paradigm shift
- Minoru Suzuki, on clinical BNCT experience with accelerators
- Peeter Karihtala, on BNCT clinical trials
- Lisa Licitra, on progress to clinical adoption of accelerator based BNCT
- Kendall Morrison, on development of new novel BNCT drugs
- Nicoletta Protti, on online boron dose distribution imaging
- Mitsuko Masutani, on radiobiological characterization of a BNCT beam
- Stuart Green, on dosimetry in BNCT
- Valeria Conte, on micro-dosimetry of a neutron BNCT beam
- Ian Postuma, on treatment planning for BNCT
- Vittorio Bellotti, on structural basis of cancer cells uptake of boronated compounds
- Andres Kreiner, on accelerator based neutron sources for BNCT
- Ian Swainson, on development of the IAEA publication ‘Advances in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy’
- Sandro Rossi, on BNCT@CNAO
Dr. Rossi's talk was particularly noteworthy for its emphlasis on the importance of collaboration between researchers and clinicians in the development of BNCT. He stressed that BNCT is a complex therapy that requires a multidisciplinary team approach. He also
highlighted the importance of international collaboration, as the CNAO is working with partners around the world to develop and implement BNCT.
In his talk, Dr. Sandro Rossi, Director of the CNAO Hadrontherapy Center in Pavia, Italy, provided an overview of the CNAO's plans to have an active BNCT facility by 2025 through a partnership with TAE Life Sciences. He highlighted the potential of BNCT to
treat a wide range of cancers, including those that are difficult to reach or treat with other methods. He also discussed the challenges that need to be addressed before BNCT can be widely implemented, such as the development of new boron-rich drugs and the
optimization of treatment planning and delivery.
The meeting was a valuable opportunity for healthcare professionals to learn about the latest developments in hadron therapy and BNCT. It also provided a platform for collaboration and networking between researchers and clinicians from around the world. The
CNAO meeting is a clear sign of the growing interest in hadron therapy and BNCT as promising new treatments for cancer. With continued research and development, these therapies have the potential to revolutionize the way cancer is treated.
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5-Ru_BNCT
By Evgeniia Sokolova.
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Greetings from Siberia!
It became a good tradition to hold the All-Russian School of Young Scientists on BNCT (RuBNCT). Now it was the 5th conference which was held in Novosibirsk, Russia from 13th to 14th of November. The conference was mainly in
face-to-face format on the 13th floor of Academpark of Akademgorodok. Participants who could not take part in the conference in person were able to join a virtual conference with simultaneous translation in Russian and in English.
It's a good possibility for young scientists to know the basics of BNCT and meet the last destinations in that field. Educational lectures were presented by Prof. Ignacio Porras, Dr. Maya Dymova, Prof. Bong Hwan Hong, Prof. Natalia Bgatova, Prof. Yuan-Hao Liu,
Dr. Alexandr Kichigin, Prof. Sergey Taskaev, Dr. Alexey Lipengolts, Prof. Irina Zavestovskaya, Dr. Anna Druzina.
Many young scientists presented their posters with brilliant results; three of them were awarded for the best poster: Maksim Klimenko «Cobalt 1,2-dicarbolide PLGA nanoparticles for boron-neutron capture therapy», Victoria Konovalova «Prompt gamma-ray spectrometry
for boron-neutron capture therapy» and Alexey Koshkarev «Development and implementation of automation systems of D-Pace ion source for the VITA accelerator».
Guests who arrived in Novosibirsk had an opportunity to visit the Budker institute and the epithermal neutron source – VITA.
Welcome to the conference website: 5th_RuBNCT
See you next year!
In the fall of 2023 the Russian Science Foundation celebrates its tenth Birthday. The Russian Science Foundation is Russia's largest foundation that supports leading scientists in their quest to understand the mysteries of nature and improve the quality of
life of millions of people. 15 scientists from different regions and fields of science whose researches were supported by the Russian Science Foundation were specially noted in
Stories of success. Congratulations to Prof. Sergey Taskaev and his team whose research were in this list!
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INSIGHTS workshop in Pisa, follow-up
By Ian Postuma.
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The inaugural INSIGHTS workshop, held in Pisa, Italy, from October 18-20, 2023, brought together leading international experts and budding researchers to discuss the latest advances in medical treatments with ionizing particles, such as hadrontherapy, boron
neutron capture therapy (BNCT), and FLASH radiotherapy.
The workshop's BNCT session featured a diverse lineup of speakers, covering topics such as:
-Introduction to BNCT research (Saverio Altieri)
- BNCT at CNAO (Mario Ciocca)
- Theranostic nanoparticles in BNCT (Simonetta Geninatti)
- NECTAR project: the study of Capture Enhanced Neutron Irradiation as a possible treatment for Alzheimer's disease (Valeria Pascali)
- Computational dosimetry in BNCT: the ANTHEM project (Ian Postuma)
- The ANTHEM BNCT clinical facility in Caserta (Setareh Fatemi)
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These talks highlighted the significant progress that has been made in BNCT research and development in recent years, from the development of new boron delivery systems and neutron sources to the advancement of BNCT planning and treatment techniques.
A particularly noteworthy presentation was given by Setareh Fatemi, who discussed the ANTHEM BNCT clinical facility in Caserta, Italy. The ANTHEM BNCT facility will be the first facility worldwide developed exclusively by public research, and it is expected
to have the first neutrons in 2026. The facility's development is a major milestone in the field of BNCT, and it represents a significant leap forward in the fight against cancer and other diseases.
In addition to the BNCT session, the INSIGHTS workshop also featured talks on a wide range of other topics in radiation therapy, including:
- Hadrontherapy treatment planning and imaging
- FLASH radiotherapy: biology, dosimetry, and clinical trials
- Artificial intelligence in radiation therapy
- Adaptive radiation therapy
- New materials and technologies for radiation therapy
The workshop was a resounding success, attracting over 100 participants from across Italy and Europe. The event provided a valuable opportunity for researchers to share their latest findings and to discuss the future of radiation therapy. The INSIGHTS workshop
is a testament to the vibrant and innovative research community working in the field of radiation therapy. The workshop's success highlights the growing interest in and enthusiasm for BNCT and other cutting-edge radiation therapies.
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That's all for now!
We hope you enjoyed this communication.
Any news to share? Please contact us and
we will announce it in this newsletter. You can also write us to
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Hope to meet you soon!
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