Can late effects of neutron irradiation in man be estimated from early responses?
Slowly-developing tissue changes after neutron irradiation should be more easily predicted from acutely-developing injury than is the case with X rays. The difference between tissue responses to neutrons and X rays is that cell survival in both rapidly and slowly responding tissues is a direct logarithmic function of neutron dose, at least up to about 3 Gy, whereas the X-ray dose-survival relationship differs between the two types of tissue: the target cells for late injury are more susceptible to killing from accumulation of sub-lethal X-ray injury and hence the survival curve diverges from its initial essentially linear region more rapidly than does that for the target cells for acute injury.
Withers
H R
HR
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA.
D000818:Animals; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena / Q000528:radiation effects*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000528:radiation effects; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000209:etiology*; D009502:Neutrons; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness; D014965:X-Rays