Leena Kankaanranta

https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=6603353183
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4831-0732

Leena Kankaanranta turned to BNCT research after Professor Holsti at the Helsinki Cancer Centre. Since then, the VTT FiR-1 research reactor project has been launched to support health sciences, including BNCT treatments. Great work has also been done in the Department of Neurology to start the first glioma study in Finland. In collaboration with physicists, Leena Kankaanranta dedicated herself to clinical BNCT work. In May 1999, the first glioma patient in Finland was treated with BNCT, which was shown to be safe and to have an overall survival comparable to photon postoperative therapy. Patients with recurrent head and neck tumours were then considered as the second candidate tumour group for BNCT, as they had bothersome symptoms and very few treatment options at the time.  The results of Leena Kankaanranta and colleagues achieved tumour shrinkage, symptom relief and complete response in the first protocol with 2 BNCT treatments 4-5 weeks apart. The team also developed the use of BNCT as palliative care, achieving long-term palliation with a single treatment session. Following the installation of a neutron accelerator in Helsinki, the work of Leena Kankaanranta and colleagues is focused on accelerator-based BNCT. The first trials in head and neck tumours will assess the safety of accelerated BNCT using BPA-f in Helsinki.  Later, the team may expand BNCT targets to other cancers and parts of the body, possibly using new boron carriers.