Fractionated BNCT for locally recurrent head and neck cancer: Experience from a phase I/II clinical trial at Tsing Hua Open-Pool Reactor

•We treated 12 patients with recurrent Head and Neck (H & N) cancer after radical surgery and radiotherapy since 2010.•Four complete response (CR) and 3 partial response (PR) were found. Total response rate was 58%.•Two patients had local control longer than one year.•No grade 4 or higher toxicity was noted for both acute and chronic effects.

To introduce our experience of treating locally and regionally recurrent head and neck cancer patients with BNCT at Tsing Hua Open-Pool Reactor in Taiwan, 12 patients (M/F=10/2, median age 55.5 Y/O) were enrolled and 11 received two fractions of treatment. Fractionated BNCT at 30-day interval with adaptive planning according to changed T/N ratios was feasible, effective and safe for selected recurrent head and neck cancer in this trial.