NTHU
On February 14th the melodious strains of the fourth movement of Mahler's Fifth Symphony were heard inside the building of Tsing Hua Open pool Reactor (THOR) at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) - for this is the favorite piece of music of a European woman who was here to undergo Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) for a malignant brain tumor. This was her second course of treatment. The size of malignant glioma deep in her brainstem was reduced from 3.51 cm to 1.06 cm after the first treatment.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200325005023/en/
In cooperation with the Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH), NTHU has converted THOR for use in BNCT. To date, the treatment has provided a new lease on life to over 130 cancer patients from around the world.
According to Professor Chou Fong-in, BNCT is a target radiation therapy in which the patient is first injected with a boron-containing drug; once the drug has accumulated in the tumor, the neutron beam is used to irradiate the tumor for delivering curative doses specifically to tumors, while sparing normal tissue.
As explained by TVGH oncologist Chen Yi-wei, boron-10 drug contains the structure like essential amino acids, and cancer cells need lots of nutrients to support their abnormal proliferation. Thus cancerous cells absorb almost all the boron-10 before the normal cells have a chance to. The boron acts as a kind of explosive charge, and once the cancerous cells have got their fill of it, the neutron beam is used to “detonate” the charge, killing off the cancer cells.
The husband of the patient is a physician. He said that his wife used to be an avid tennis player, but four years ago she unexpectedly saw two balls flying towards her at the same time, a classic symptom of diplopia. A computerized tomography (CT) scan, however, later revealed a lesion of glioma in her brain, located deep inside her brainstem. After undergoing two craniotomies with gamma knife radiotherapy, the glioma relapsed and had turned malignant. On the advice of an expert of Radiation Oncology, they inquired about the treatment being offered at the TVGH.
According to Dr. Chen, the key requirements for BNCT are a boron-containing drug suitable for absorption by cancer cells, and a stable neutron source with appropriate energy spectrum. NTHU’s research reactor has been retrofitted to provide the neutron source. It is even better than the accelerator driven neutron source developed in Japan for use in hospitals.
NTHU and the Taoyuan City Government are planning to jointly develop a medical complex as part of the Taoyuan Aerotropolis to be built near the Taoyuan Airport. The BNCT will play a major role at the new facility, and will be used to treat both Taiwanese and overseas patients.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200325005023/en/
Link:
Social Media:
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Ahead of Holiday Season, Visa Identifies Five Transformative Forces Reshaping Global Payment Security20.11.2025 19:50:00 CET | Press release
New Biannual Threats Report Reveals Fundamental Shift in Fraud Operations as Criminals Adopt Industrial-Scale Tactics To celebrate International Fraud Awareness Week, Visa (NYSE: V) today released its Fall 2025 Biannual Threats Report, revealing five forces that are transforming the global payments security landscape. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251120412198/en/ The report, produced by Visa's Payment Ecosystem Risk and Control (PERC) team, draws on intelligence from Visa's global network to identify how criminal operations are evolving with unprecedented speed, scale, and sophistication. "The payments ecosystem is experiencing a paradigm shift in how fraud operates," said Paul Fabara, Chief Risk and Client Services Officer at Visa. "Criminals are no longer working as opportunistic individuals-- they're operating like tech startups, building reusable infrastructure and deploying systematic, industrial-scale
Suzano Forms Partnership with Tencent and Ecofuturo Institute at COP30 for AI-Powered Conservation and Nature Education20.11.2025 18:25:00 CET | Press release
New agreement signed at COP30 will see organisations collaborating to use artificial intelligence tools for biodiversity monitoring and digital platforms to boost public engagement in conservation efforts. The world’s largest pulp supplier, Suzano, today announces the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the multinational technology business Tencent and the Brazilian non-profit Ecofuturo Institute, to pioneer new digital approaches to drive public engagement in conservation. The collaboration will leverage Suzano’s expertise in sustainable forestry, Tencent’s cutting-edge digital technology, and Ecofuturo’s expertise in environmental education, to pilot joint initiatives in both Brazil and China. These include enhancing ecological awareness, accelerating biodiversity solutions, and leveraging digital platforms to foster public engagement in conservation. The partnership will result in a pilot project where advanced AI tools for species recognition developed by Tencent’s
EMVCo Working on How Global Specifications Can Support Agentic Payments20.11.2025 17:38:00 CET | Press release
EMVCo – the technical body that creates and manages EMV® Specifications and programmes that enable seamless and secure card-based payments worldwide – has announced that it is working on how global specifications can support innovation in agentic payment solutions by increasing trust and interoperability across the ecosystem. Agentic commerce is rapidly reshaping the shopping experience by enabling AI agents to act on the consumer’s behalf. This is driving significant momentum for agentic payments, which introduce AI agents as new actors that can initiate transactions with merchants – without requiring direct involvement from the consumer. While agentic payments have the potential to increase convenience and personalisation, they present unique considerations for how transactions are initiated, authenticated and secured. As industry adoption and innovation accelerate, a globally interoperable and scalable approach may be beneficial in realising trusted agentic payments for consumers, m
Université Paris-Saclay and Owkin: A Unique Alliance to Propel University Medical Research to the Top of the European Rankings Through AI20.11.2025 15:17:00 CET | Press release
Université Paris-Saclay and Owkin announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding to explore the potential of K Pro Free - Owkin’s AI co-pilot for biology - for use by Paris-Saclay. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251120130113/en/ K Pro Free will now be available to the entire Université Paris-Saclay community, and in particular teachers, researchers and doctoral students working in the biomedical sciences. The partnership includes workshops, training sessions and events designed to promote the discovery and adoption of K Pro Free, as well as the co-organization of communication and dissemination initiatives around the use of AI in health. In this way, the partnership will promote user training, but also enrich and continuously improve the co-pilot's models through feedback and use cases from the l’Université Paris-Saclay community. This partnership is part of Université Paris-Saclay’s strategy to integr
Frasca Advances Flight Training Technology with New Visual System Powered by Unreal Engine20.11.2025 15:05:00 CET | Press release
Frasca International, Inc., a FlightSafety International company and leader in flight simulation, today announced the launch of VITAL FVS 100, the next evolution of its visual system technology. Building on the proven TruVision Global platform, VITAL FVS 100 was developed using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and delivers unprecedented realism, scalability, and innovation in pilot training. The Unreal-powered VITAL FVS 100 system introduces major advancements in visual fidelity and training realism, further enhancing the capabilities of Frasca, a leading developer of flight simulators and training devices. The new system includes physically based renderings, advanced lighting effects, and a new volumetric cloud model that creates dynamic, weather-rich environments. Terrain imagery now includes one-meter resolution coverage for the contiguous United States and Hawaii, with expanded global datasets covering European buildings and tree covered regions. Additionally, enhanced particle effects re
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom