Differences between biological effects of high LET and low LET radiations in relation to their application in radiotherapy
article
The application of fast neutrons, negative pions or heavy ions will only provide an advantage for the radiotherapy of cancer if, in comparison with conventional radiation, e.g., Xrays, gamma rays and electrons, better depth dose and collimation characteristics or specific radiobiological dose response relationships result in greater local control probabilities for tumors without increased frequencies of severe normal tissue damage. Differences in intrinsic radiosensitivity and the presence of hypoxic cells are considered to be the main factors which can cause values of the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) for responses of tumors to be larger than RBE values for normal tissue tolerance. Clinical studies on lung metastases irradiated with single doses of 15 MeV neutrons indicate that RBE values for tumor growth delay can vary between 1.2 and 4.0, while RBE values for damage to several normal tissues are estimated from data on a few animal tissues to be approximately 2.5.
Topics
fast neutron radiationlinear energy transferlung metastasismegavoltage radiotherapynegative pi mesonrelative biologic effectivenesstherapyAlpha ParticlesCell SurvivalCells, CulturedComparative StudyEnergy TransferFast NeutronsHumanLung NeoplasmsNeoplasm MetastasisNeoplasmsOxygen ConsumptionRadiotherapy DosageRelative Biological EffectivenessScattering, RadiationX-Ray Therapy
TNO Identifier
228310
Source
Radiologia Clinica, 46(5), pp. 380-389.
Pages
380-389
Files
To receive the publication files, please send an e-mail request to TNO Repository.