Multiorgan fatal chronic complications following radiation treatment for cancer of the cervix--results of fibroblast assay.
We report a case of severe chronic normal tissue injury following conventional irradiation in a 33-year-old patient with a strong family history of cancer. Her cultured fibroblasts exhibited a response to low-dose-rate irradiation similar to fibroblasts taken from a normal individual. For acute irradiation her fibroblasts showed a slight increased sensitivity to single doses compared to fibroblasts from a normal individual. This difference was much larger when fractionated irradiation was given. It is concluded that the hypersensitive response of this patient was due to the fractionated radiotherapy and not to the low-dose-rate brachytherapy. We believe that this is the first report of this form of cellular radiosensitivity which is mainly expressed in fractionated radiotherapy.
Brown
R C
RC
Department of Radiation Biology and Medical Physics, Ottawa Regional Cancer Centre, Ontario, Canada.
Raaphorst
G P
GP
Danjoux
C E
CE
Drouin
P
P
D000328:Adult; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000528:radiation effects; D006801:Humans; D011832:Radiation Injuries; D012016:Reference Values; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology / Q000528:radiation effects; D013679:Technology, Radiologic; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*