The RBE issues in ion-beam therapy: conclusions of a joint IAEA/ICRU working group regarding quantities and units
- 1 December 2006
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Radiation Protection Dosimetry
- Vol. 122 (1-4), 463-470
- https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncl447
Abstract
This paper summarises the conclusions of a working group established jointly by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) to address some of the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) issues encountered in ion-beam therapy. Special emphasis is put on the selection and definition of the involved quantities and units. The isoeffective dose, as introduced here for radiation therapy applications, is the dose that delivered under reference conditions would produce the same clinical effects as the actual treatment in a given system, all other conditions being identical. It is expressed in Gy. The reference treatment conditions are: photon irradiation, 2 Gy per fraction, 5 daily fractions a week. The isoeffective dose DIsoE is the product of the physical quantity absorbed dose D and a weighting factor WIsoE. WIsoE is an inclusive weighting factor that takes into account all factors that could influence the clinical effects like dose per fraction, overall time, radiation quality (RQ), biological system and effects. The numerical value of WIsoE is selected by the radiation-oncology team for a given patient (or treatment protocol). It is part of the treatment prescription. Evaluation of the influence of RQ on WIsoE raises complex problems because of the clinically significant RBE variations with biological effect (late vs. early) and position in depth in the tissues which is a problem specific to ion-beam therapy. Comparison of the isoeffective dose with the equivalent dose frequently used in proton- and ion-beam therapy is discussed.Keywords
This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit:
- RBE and weighting of absorbed dose in ion-beam therapyRadiotherapy and Oncology, 2004
- Intestinal crypt regeneration in mice : a biological system for quality assurance in non-conventional radiation therapyRadiotherapy and Oncology, 2004
- Overview of clinical experiences on carbon ion radiotherapy at NIRSRadiotherapy and Oncology, 2004
- The Gray Lecture 2001: coming technical advances in radiation oncologyInternational Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, 2002
- Biological effect of pulsed dose rate brachytherapy with stepping sources if short half-times of repair are present in tissuesInternational Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, 1997
- Radiobiological Effectiveness of Radiation Beams with Broad LET Spectra: Microdosimetric Analysis Using Biological Weighting FunctionsRadiation Protection Dosimetry, 1994
- Pulsed brachytherapy: The conditions for no significant loss of therapeutic ratio compared with traditional low dose rate brachytherapyInternational Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, 1992
- Calculation of the uncertainty in the dose delivered during radiation therapyMedical Physics, 1985