(We Chinese in America Media Editor Tang Zhao, February 8, 2022) BNCT therapy brings hope of rebirth to patients with head and neck cancer. The picture is a demonstration treatment process of BNCT Center of Qingda University. (Photo from United News Network).

Taiwan has an emerging medical technology that is arrogant in the world. This low-key "light of the world" brings the last ray of hope to patients with head and neck cancer and brain tumor. Not only is it certified by international organizations, but Taiwan is the only country in the world that can engage in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) and the only country in the world that uses this method to cure malignant brain tumor patients.

Photo/Qingda Atomic Furnace plays a key role in BNCT treatment. (Photo from United News Network)

The right time, the right place, the people, and the people have contributed to the development of BNCT in Taiwan

In the past three years, Taiwan's BNCT has developed by leaps and bounds, keeping pace with Japan. Every day, Taipei Rongzong International Treatment Center receives dozens of phone calls and emails for help, including Japan, Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Spain, Singapore, and other places. It also received two Russian patients a month ago. letter.

At 7:00 am on December 24, 2021, two ambulances from Beirong honked their horns all the way into the campus of Tsinghua University and went straight to the BNCT center of the pool reactor (commonly known as the atomic furnace). On this day, Chen Yiwei, the chief physician of the Radiation Therapy Department of Beirong Oncology Department, was about to perform BNCT treatment for two Taiwanese patients.

Why do patients have to go to Qingda Atomic Furnace for treatment?

Boron neutron capture therapy, as the name suggests, is to irradiate tumors that have absorbed boron-containing drugs with neutrons to induce boron splitting reactions in the drugs to kill cancer cells without affecting healthy tissues. Therefore, the two keys to treatment are an effective source of neutrons and the targeting of boron-containing drugs.

Zhou Fengying, a research and development consultant at the BNCT Center of Tsingtao University, said, "Taiwan's BNCT has achieved today's results, which is caused by the right time, the right place, and the people.".

Qingda Atomic Furnace Converted to Medical Use, BNCT Treatment Is Dawning

In 1992, the anti-nuclear noise gradually increased, and the first day when BNCT was created was when the head of the reactor group at Qingda University decided to convert the atomic furnace into medical use, integrate the resources of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the original center, and set up BNCT research team, and evaluates the conversion of the only research atomic furnace in Taiwan into a BNCT treatment facility.

Good things have been going through a lot of hardships, until Kaizhizhong, who also served as the director of the original science center in 2000, finally won a budget of 70 million from the National Science and Technology Association (now the Ministry of Science and Technology)

Liu Hongming, who is currently the first-class nuclear engineer of the Yuanke Center and deputy director of the BNCT Center, stood on the atomic furnace viewing platform, pointed down to a light blue facility, and said that this is the newly added neutron irradiation room, which is drawn from the atomic furnace. The sub-irradiation patient, next to the roof with the BNCT pattern printed on it, is the preparation area and rest room for the patient to spray medicine.

"I built the facility, but I never thought that the atomic furnace could one day enter the clinic and treat patients," he even asked back, "Just think, what is the patient's reaction when they hear the atomic furnace? The atomic furnace is not a medical device. To treat, or to be treated as an experiment?”

What is BNCT?

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT): Inject a boron-containing drug into the human body. After being ingested by cancer cells and irradiated with neutrons, the boron-containing drug will fission to produce two types of radiation particles with high biological destructive ability, which can accurately kill cancer cells Cells can achieve the purpose of treatment, and the damage to healthy cells is extremely slight and can be recovered. In the past three years, Taiwan has engaged in 17 overseas emergency medical treatments, and the treatment results have leapt to the international stage.

After 30 years, Taiwan's BNCT has developed a great leap forward

On January 30, 2019, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd asks for help in treating Australians through diplomatic channels. Taiwan opened the first BNCT emergency medical treatment for foreign patients. A year later, Li Min, Dean of the Former Academy of Sciences of Qing University, and Ye Zongkuang, Director of the Former Academy of Sciences, actively raised funds and planned to transform the atomic furnace into a qualified medical device to benefit more terminal cancer patients.

(Source: United News Network)