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The necessity of using coupled techniques to analyze samples from boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) patients prior to element-specific detection has been demonstrated. BNCT patients were infused with p-boronophenylalanine (BPA)-fructose complex before the therapy started. Urine and blood plasma samples were collected at different times after the start of the BPA administration and were run on a porous graphitic carbon column coupled on-line to an inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) and an ICP time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS). In addition to BPA, a possible metabolite to BPA and some minor boron-containing compounds, eluting close to the front, were also found in the urine and plasma samples. Because only the total concentration of boron has been measured so far in earlier studies, the suspected metabolite could not be detected, and this is the first report indicating its presence in urine and plasma of BNCT patients. The abundance of 10B in urine was about the same for BPA and its possible metabolite (98-99%). The ratio between the possible metabolite and BPA was found to differ in the urine from different patients. Most of the patients had a metabolite concentration of approximately 10 mol % of the BPA content in their urine 5-11 h after the start of the BPA administration. This ratio increased to between 30 and 80% when 24 h had passed. The ratio of metabolite to BPA was found to be lower in the plasma than in the urine samples at comparable time after the start of BPA infusion. Preliminary results from micro-LC-electrospray ionization (ESI)-MS/MS measurements on four urine samples indicate that the metabolite has a higher mass than BPA.

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