Radiat Oncol J.  2012 Mar;30(1):1-13. 10.3857/roj.2012.30.1.1.

Basics of particle therapy II: relative biological effectiveness

• Choi J
• Kang JO

• KMID: 2051106
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3857/roj.2012.30.1.1

Abstract

In the previous review, the physical aspect of heavy particles, with a focus on the carbon beam was introduced. Particle beam therapy has many potential advantages for cancer treatment without increasing severe side effects in normal tissue, these kinds of radiation have different biologic characteristics and have advantages over using conventional photon beam radiation during treatment. The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) is used for many biological, clinical endpoints among different radiation types and is the only convenient way to transfer the clinical experience in radiotherapy with photons to another type of radiation therapy. However, the RBE varies dependent on the energy of the beam, the fractionation, cell types, oxygenation status, and the biological endpoint studied. Thus this review describes the concerns about RBE related to particle beam to increase interests of the Korean radiation oncologists' society.

Keyword

Carbon; Proton; Particle beam therapy; Relative biological effectiveness

MeSH Terms

Carbon
Cell Fractionation
Oxygen
Photons
Population Characteristics
Protons
Relative Biological Effectiveness
Carbon
Oxygen
Protons