Radiobiology of pulsed particle beams


Radiobiology of pulsed particle beams

Beyreuther, E.

Current radiotherapy treatment modalities like Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and gated irradiation and new technological developments like laser-driven particle accelerators include the dose delivery by short radiation pulses of high dose rate that overlap in the tumor region. The doses are accumulated over sequent radiation pulses that vary in dose fraction and time structure, which might influence the radiation response of the irradiated tissue.
In order to understand the temporal and fractionation influence of sequent beam delivery basic radiobiological experiments and translational studies to the point of clinical implementation are necessary. Starting with fundamental radiobiological principles, like radiation action and the induction of DNA damage, the lecture will also introduce some standard methods in radiobiological research. On cellular level this includes the colony formation assay as so called “golden standard” to measure the cellular survival and the quantification of molecules involved in the recognition and repair of DNA damage. One step further in the translational research chain, the observation of the radiation induced tumor growth delay on small animals will be explained.
In the second part of the lecture preceding and recent radiobiological experiments with pulsed particle beams will be presented. Beginning in the 1950s, first experiments were carried out mainly to understand the mechanism of radiation action revealing that the radiobiological effect is influenced by dose rates below 1 Gy/min, but not by higher ones. In continuation of these experiments, several studies focusing on different aspects of pulsed radiation were performed during the last two decades.
Parallel to their clinical implementation the radiobiological consequences of the sequent pulse delivery of gating and IMRT techniques were investigated highlighting the overall fraction time as critical parameter. Contrary to the dose rates of < 104 Gy/min applied for these current clinical dose delivery techniques, the laser driven techniques are characterized by pulse dose rates higher than 109 Gy/min. Taking the ultra-high pulse dose rate and other specific properties of laser driven particle beams into account the replacement of conventional accelerators for particle radiotherapy was investigated by several groups worldwide. To sum up, the hitherto performed cell and animal studies disclose that the radiobiological response to laser driven particle beams is not influenced by their ultra-high pulse dose rate.

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Publ.-Id: 23990