Comparison of the clonogenic survival of A549 non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma cells after irradiation with low-dose-rate beta particles and high-dose-rate X-rays

Purpose: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death. Among the new modalities to treat cancer, internal radiotherapy seems to be very promising. However, the achievable dose-rate is two orders of magnitude lower than the one used in conventional external radiotherapy, and data has to be collected to evaluate the cell response to highlight the potential effectiveness of low-dose-rate beta particles irradiation. This work investigates the phosphorus beta irradiation (32 P) dose response on the clonogenicity of human A549 non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma cells and compares it to high-dose-rate X-irradiations results. Materials and methods : Cell survival was evaluated by a colony forming assay eight days after low-dose-rate 32 P beta irradiations (0.8 Gy/h) and high-dose-rate X-ray irradiations (0.855 Gy/min). Results : Survival curves were obtained for both types of irradiations, and showed hyper-radiosensitivity at very low doses. Radiosensitivity parameters were obtained by using the linear-quadratic and induced-repair models. Conclusions : Comparison with high-dose-rate X-rays shows a similar surviving fraction, confirming the effectiveness of beta particles for tumor sterilization.