Radiowave dielectric investigation of boron compounds distribution in cultured tumour cells: relevance to boron neutron capture therapy

The distribution of two main Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) agents, borocaptate sodium (BSH) and borono-phenylalanine (BPA), in C6 rat glioma cells has been investigated by means of radiowave dielectric spectroscopy measurements. Significant differences between cells treated with the two different boron carriers were found in the magnitude of passive electrical cell parameters. This technique offers a new procedure for the measurement of boron compounds interactions with different biological environments at cellular level and is suggested to have the potentiality for becoming an attractive tool for biodistribution studies of BNCT compounds in biological tissues. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.