Production and distribution of chromosome aberrations in human lymphocytes by particle beams with different LET

Agata Kowalska,Wiktoria Pereira,Konrad Czerski,Elena Nasonova,Evgeny Krasavin,Polina Kutsalo

doi:10.1007/s00411-018-0771-4

Abstract

We investigated induction of chromosome aberrations (CA) in human lymphocytes when exposed to 150 MeV and spread out Bragg peak (SOBP) proton beams, and 199 MeV/u carbon beam which are currently widely used for cancer treatment and simultaneously are important components of cosmic radiation. For a comparison, the boron ions of much lower energy 22 MeV/u and a 60Co γ rays were used. Dose–effect curves as well as the distributions of CA were studied using Poisson and Neyman type A statistics. Systematics of experimentally determined parameters, their dependence on applied doses and irradiation quality are presented.

Highlights

The study of biological efficiency of accelerated particle beams is of great interest in medicine due to the increasing use of hadron therapy for cancer treatment (Schulz-Ertner et al 2007; Nikoghosyan et al 2004)
Experimental studies devoted to Chromosome aberrations (CA) as a response to ionizing radiation are often performed by means of dose–effect curves, which usually have a linear-quadratic shape (Lea 1955) and can be used for estimation of the clinically important relative biological effectiveness (RBE)
The total CA numbers have been fitted by a linear-quadratic function with exception of those induced by boron ions, which were fitted by a linear relation

Summary

Introduction

The study of biological efficiency of accelerated particle beams is of great interest in medicine due to the increasing use of hadron therapy for cancer treatment (Schulz-Ertner et al 2007; Nikoghosyan et al 2004). Experimental studies devoted to CA as a response to ionizing radiation are often performed by means of dose–effect curves, which usually have a linear-quadratic shape (Lea 1955) and can be used for estimation of the clinically important relative biological effectiveness (RBE). The first one is of a physical origin and arises from overlapping ion tracks at high ion fluencies, which locally lead to higher doses and a stronger biological response (Scholz 2006; Loucas et al 2013). The quadratic term in the dose–effect curve can result from the repair mechanisms of the DNA damage leading to CA, which depends on the local ionization density and on the radiation quality (Scholz and Kraft 1996; Loucas et al 2013)

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