Radiobiological description of the LET dependence of the cell survival of oxic and anoxic cells irradiated by carbon ions

Light-ion radiation therapy against hypoxic tumors is highly curative due to reduced dependence on the presence of oxygen in the tumor at elevated linear energy transfer (LET) towards the Bragg peak. Clinical ion beams using spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) are characterized by a wide spectrum of LET values. Accurate treatment optimization requires a method that can account for influence of the variation in response for a broad range of tumor hypoxia, absorbed doses and LETs. This paper presents a parameterization of the Repairable Conditionally-Repairable (RCR) cell survival model that can describe the survival of oxic and hypoxic cells over a wide range of LET values, and investigates the relationship between hypoxic radiation resistance and LET. The biological response model was tested by fitting cell survival data under oxic and anoxic conditions for V79 cells irradiated with LETs within the range of 30-500 keV/mu m. The model provides good agreement with experimental cell survival data for the range of LET investigated, confirming the robustness of the parameterization method. This new version of the RCR model is suitable for describing the biological response of mixed populations of oxic and hypoxic cells and at the same time taking into account the distribution of doses and LETs in the incident beam and its variation with depth in tissue. The model offers a versatile tool for the selection of LET and dose required in the optimization of the therapeutic effect, without severely affecting normal tissue in realistic tumors presenting highly heterogeneous oxic and hypoxic regions.