A comparison of epithermal neutron beams for NCT: Effect of beam collimation on therapy parameters

Collimation of neutron beams has a large effect on a number of therapy parameters of interest in BNCT. The effect of collimation include changes in dose rate, thermal neutron penetration and the degree of dose uniformity throughout the patient volume. Whether or not collimation of a neutron beam will improve a given therapy parameter depends on the size of the beam relative to the size of the phantom. This paper describes the results of a computer simulation study undertaken to examine the dosimetric effects of collimating a number of different beam configurations; the result of the study is a series of guideline to aid in both epithermal and thermal neutron beam design