by Andrea Monti Hughes
The NCI Radiation Research Program (National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health -NCI/NIH- from USA) organized the “NCI Workshop on Neutron Capture Therapy for Cancer”, held virtually from April 20th to 22nd, 2022.
This workshop was coordinated by Jacek Capala (Program Director, Radiation Research Program, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA). The aims of this workshop were to assess the state of NCT, discuss NCT compounds under development and in their pipeline, stimulate new ideas for relevant neutron capture isotopes, discuss and recommend the best models/methods for translational research (preclinical and clinical). The Organizing Committee was composed by different researchers and clinicians from USA, Japan, Germany, Finland and Argentina. There were about 150 – 250 attendees (depending on the session).
The first day was devoted to Clinical Trials: Welcome remarks by Jacek Capala, Bhadrasain Vikram, Norm Coleman, BNCT overview (Wolfgang Sauerwein), Clinical trials in Japan and Finland (Akira Matsumura, Tomoyuki Asano, Katsumi Hirose, Shinji Kawabata, Hiroshi Igaki, Kei Nakai, Liisa Porra, Heikki Joensuu) and a discussion on how clinical trials should be best designed (Andrea Wittig). Moderators of the session: Akira Matsumura (Japan) and Sunil Krishnan (USA). Recording link.
The second day was centered on Delivery Agents: Small Molecules (Bhaskar Das), Boron Clusters (Clara Vinas), Carborane-containing Matrix Metalloproteinase Ligands (Daniel Becker), Carborane-peptide conjugates (Evamarie Hey-Hawkins), Boron Delivery using Serum Albumin (Hiroyuki Nakamura), Boron-rich Liposomes (Satish Jalisatgi), Targeted NanoBoron compounds (Rameshwar Patil), Boron Compounds for Proton Boron Fusion Therapy (James Welsh) and Tumor targeted boron and gadolinium incorporated phospholipid molecules (Jamey Weichert). Moderators of the session: Graca Vicente (USA) and Narayan Hosmane (USA). Recording link.
The third day was devoted to Translational Research. It included Dosimetry/Reporting (Reinhard Schulte, Wolfgang Sauerwein), Radiation Biology (Mitsuko Masutani, PierLuigi Mauri) and Optimal Animal Models to study BNCT (Rolf Barth and Andrea Monti Hughes). The workshop wrap-up was conducted by Dr. Jacek Capala. Moderators of the session: Amanda Schwint (Argentina) and Natsuko Kondo (Japan). Recording link.
This workshop ended with an important announcement: the possibility to become a member of the NCT Interest Group, coordinated by Jacek Capala. You can find a short biography of Dr. Capala in the following website.
This Group is focused on informing the NCI Extramural Program about the current status of the field, brainstorm about translational research and potential clinical trials, ignite interest in NCT, build momentum, facilitate the informal exchange of ideas and resources, and facilitate establishment of NCT research and clinical facilities in the US. You can find this and more information in the following website.