Biodistribution studies of boronophenylalanine-fructose in melanoma and brain tumor patients in Argentina

A study of the B-10-enriched p-boronophenylalanine-fructose complex ((10)BPA-F) infusion procedure in potential BNCT patients, including four melanoma of extremities and two high-grade gliomas (glioblastoma and ganglioglioma) was performed. T/B and S/B ratios for B-10 concentrations in tumor (T), blood (B) and skin (S) were determined. The T/B ratio for the glioblastoma was in the 1.8-3.4 range. The ganglioglioma did not show any significant boron uptake. For the nodular metastasic melanoma T/B values were between 1.5 and 2.6 (average 2.1 +/- 0.4), corresponding to the lower limit of the mean values reported for different melanoma categories. This result might suggest a lower boron uptake for nodular metastasic melanomas. S/B was 1.5 +/- 0.4. An open two-compartment pharmacokinetic model was applied to predict the boron concentration during the course and at the end of a BNCT irradiation. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.