Radiobiologic parameters and local effect model predictions for head-and-neck squamous cell carcinomas exposed to high linear energy transfer ions.
OBJECTIVE
To establish the radiobiologic parameters of head-and-neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) in response to ion irradiation with various linear energy transfer (LET) values and to evaluate the relevance of the local effect model (LEM) in HNSCC.


METHODS
Cell survival curves were established in radiosensitive SCC61 and radioresistant SQ20B cell lines irradiated with [33.6 and 184 keV/n] carbon, [302 keV/n] argon, and X-rays. The results of ion experiments were confronted to LEM predictions.


RESULTS
The relative biologic efficiency ranged from 1.5 to 4.2 for SCC61 and 2.1 to 2.8 for SQ20B cells. Fixing an arbitrary D(0) parameter, which characterized survival to X-ray at high doses (>10 Gy), gave unsatisfying LEM predictions for both cell lines. For D(0) = 10 Gy, the error on survival fraction at 2 Gy amounted to a factor of 10 for [184 keV/n] carbon in SCC61 cells. We showed that the slope (s(max)) of the survival curve at high doses was much more reliable than D(0). Fitting s(max) to 2.5 Gy(-1) gave better predictions for both cell lines. Nevertheless, LEM could not predict the responses to fast and slow ions with the same accuracy.


CONCLUSIONS
The LEM could predict the main trends of these experimental data with correct orders of magnitude while s(max) was optimized. Thus the efficiency of carbon ions cannot be simply extracted from the clinical response of a patient to X-rays. LEM should help to optimize planning for hadrontherapy if a set of experimental data is available for high-LET radiations in various types of tumors.
Beuve
Michael
M
IPNL, LIRIS, IN2P3, Université Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France. mbeuve@ipnl.in2p3.fr
Alphonse
Gersende
G
Maalouf
Mira
M
Colliaux
Anthony
A
Battiston-Montagne
Priscilla
P
Jalade
Patrice
P
Balanzat
Emmanuel
E
Demeyer
Albert
A
Bajard
Marcel
M
Rodriguez-Lafrasse
Claire
C
D001128:Argon / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002244:Carbon / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002470:Cell Survival; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D018499:Linear Energy Transfer; D011836:Radiation Tolerance; D011853:Radiobiology; D011882:Radiotherapy, High-Energy; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness; D014410:Tumor Stem Cell Assay
D001128:Argon; D002244:Carbon