Relative Biological Effectiveness of Carbon Ions in a Rat Prostate Carcinoma In Vivo: Comparison of 1, 2, and 6 Fractions
Menée à l'aide d'un modèle murin de carcinome radiorésistant de la prostate, cette étude évalue, du point de vue du contrôle local de la tumeur, l'efficacité biologique relative d'une radiothérapie par ions carbone délivrée en 1, 2 ou 6 fractions
To determine the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) and the effective α/β ratio for local tumor control of a radioresistant rat prostate tumor (Dunning subline R3327-AT1) after 6 fractions of carbon ions and photons. A total of 82 animals with tumors in the distal thigh were treated with 6 fractions of either photons or carbon ions, by use of increasing dose levels and a 2-cm spread-out Bragg peak. Endpoints of the study were local control (no tumor recurrence within 300 days) and volumetric changes after irradiation. The resulting values for dose at 50% tumor control probability were used to determine RBE values. Including data for 1 and 2 fractions from a previous study, we estimated α/β ratios. For 6 fractions, the values for dose at 50% tumor control probability were 116.6 ± 3.0 Gy for photons and 43.7 ± 2.3 Gy for carbon ions and the resulting RBE was 2.67 ± 0.15. The α/β ratio was 84.7 ± 13.8 Gy for photons and 66.0 ± 21.0 Gy for carbon ions. Using these data together with the linear-quadratic model, we estimated the maximum RBE to be 2.88 ± 0.27. The study confirmed the increased effectiveness of carbon ions relative to photons over the whole dose range for a highly radioresistant tumor. The maximum RBE below 3 is in line with other published in vivo data. The RBE values may be used to benchmark RBE models. Hypoxia seems to have a major impact on the radiation response, although this still has to be confirmed by dedicated experiments.
International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics