Introduction Cancer risk following exposure to energetic heavy ions is a major issue for space exploration and cancer ion beam therapy (1). However, no epidemiological data for exposure to heavy ions are available. Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is a known radiation-induced tumour. Several molecular studies have been performed to investigate genes involved in PTC occurrence. Rearrangements i...

The crystal and molecular structure of an RNA duplex corresponding to the high affinity Rev protein binding element (RBE) has been determined at 2.1-A resolution. Four unique duplexes are present in the crystal, comprising two structural variants. In each duplex, the RNA double helix consists of an annealed 12-mer and 14-mer that form an asymmetric internal loop consisting of G-G and G-A noncan...

Purpose: To quantify the DNA damage induced in a clinical megavoltage photon beam at various depths in and out of the field. Methods and Materials: MCNPX was used to simulate 10x10 cm and 20x20 cm 10 MV photon beams from a clinical linear accelerator. Photon and electron spectra were collected in a water phantom at depths of 2.5, 12.5 and 22.5 cm on the central axis and at off-axis points out t...

BACKGROUND Aim of this study was to evaluate the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of carbon (12C) and oxygen ion (16O)-irradiation applied in the raster-scanning technique at the Heidelberg Ion beam Therapy center (HIT) based on clonogenic survival in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines compared to photon irradiation. METHODS Four human HCC lines Hep3B, PLC, HepG2 and HUH7 were irradia...

BACKGROUND Due to their favorable physical and biological properties, helium ion beams are increasingly considered a promising alternative to proton beams for radiation therapy. Hence, this work aims at comparing in-silico the treatment of brain and ocular meningiomas with protons and helium ions, using for the first time a dedicated Monte Carlo (MC) based treatment planning engine (MCTP) thoro...

PURPOSE We present a framework, in which we compare a conventional standard dose of 50 Gy in 25 fractions with accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) using electronic brachytherapy (eBT). We discuss how radiobiological modelling enables us to establish a framework, within which we can compare external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). This leads to a determination of the shell of isoeffect in br...

Background/Aim: We aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes of oligometastatic colorectal cancer in liver and lung treated with carbon-ion radiotherapy (C-ion RT). Patients Methods: Nineteen consecutive patients or who received C-ion RT were analyzed. The doses 60.0 Gy [relative biological effectiveness (RBE)] 4 fractions, (RBE) 12 64.8 (BRE) fractions. Results: median follow-up duration was 19 ...

Fast neutrons (FN) have a higher radio-biological effectiveness (RBE) compared with photons, however the mechanism of this increase remains a controversial issue. RBE variations are seen among various FN facilities and at the same facility when different tissue depths or thicknesses of hardening filters are used. These variations lead to uncertainties in dose reporting as well as in the compari...

BACKGROUND To moving lung tumors, we applied a respiratory-gated strategy to carbon-ion pencil beam scanning with multiple phase-controlled rescanning (PCR). In this simulation study, we quantitatively evaluated dose distributions based on 4-dimensional CT (4DCT) treatment planning. METHODS Volumetric 4DCTs were acquired for 14 patients with lung tumors. Gross tumor volume, clinical target vo...