Influence of the nucleus area distribution on the survival fraction after charged particles broad beam irradiation

• Published in: Physics in medicine & biology Vol. 59; no. 15; pp. 4197 - 4211
• Main Authors: Wéra, A-C, Barazzuol, L, Jeynes, J C G, Merchant, M J, Suzuki, M, Kirkby, K J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England IOP Publishing 07.08.2014
• Subjects: Cell Nucleus - radiation effects; Cell Survival; heavy charged particles; Heavy Ions; Linear Energy Transfer; lq model; Models, Theoretical; nucleus area distribution; poisson statistics; survival fraction
• ISSN: 0031-9155; 1361-6560
• DOI: 10.1088/0031-9155/59/15/4197

It is well known that broad beam irradiation with heavy ions leads to variation in the number of hit(s) received by each cell as the distribution of particles follows the Poisson statistics. Although the nucleus area will determine the number of hit(s) received for a given dose, variation amongst its irradiated cell population is generally not considered. In this work, we investigate the effect of the nucleus area's distribution on the survival fraction. More specifically, this work aims to explain the deviation, or tail, which might be observed in the survival fraction at high irradiation doses. For this purpose, the nucleus area distribution was added to the beam Poisson statistics and the Linear-Quadratic model in order to fit the experimental data. As shown in this study, nucleus size variation, and the associated Poisson statistics, can lead to an upward survival trend after broad beam irradiation. The influence of the distribution parameters (mean area and standard deviation) was studied using a normal distribution, along with the Linear-Quadratic model parameters (α and β). Finally, the model proposed here was successfully tested to the survival fraction of LN18 cells irradiated with a 85 keV µm − 1 carbon ion broad beam for which the distribution in the area of the nucleus had been determined.