Abstract The wide usage of neutron therapy in radio oncology could be provided by construction of economical and compact proton and deuteron accelerators with energy of 2–3 MeV, which could be installed at clinic. One goal of this work was to perform new neutron-yield measurements from different targets and derive consistent data on neutron sources. Based on this data, calculations were performed in-phantom dose rate distributions for three neutron sources. It is shown that more prospective for fast neutron therapy are sources based on the 7 Li(d,n)2 4 He and 7 Li(p,n) 7 Be reactions. Intensive neutron beams produced by this reaction look very similar to beams made at huge accelerators and nuclear reactors.