title: A novel multitarget model of radiation-induced cell killing based on the Gaussian distribution.
abstract: The multitarget version of the traditional target theory based on the Poisson distribution is still used to describe the dose-survival curves of cells after ionizing radiation in radiobiology and radiotherapy. However, noting that the usual ionizing radiation damage is the result of two sequential stochastic processes, the probability distribution of the damage number per cell should follow a compound Poisson distribution, like e.g. Neyman's distribution of type A (N. A.). In consideration of that the Gaussian distribution can be considered as the approximation of the N. A. in the case of high flux, a multitarget model based on the Gaussian distribution is proposed to describe the cell inactivation effects in low linear energy transfer (LET) radiation with high dose-rate. Theoretical analysis and experimental data fitting indicate that the present theory is superior to the traditional multitarget model and similar to the Linear - Quadratic (LQ) model in describing the biological effects of low-LET radiation with high dose-rate, and the parameter ratio in the present model can be used as an alternative indicator to reflect the radiation damage and radiosensitivity of the cells.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Systems Biology, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, Liaoning, PR China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, Liaoning, PR China. Electronic address: mid@dlmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Systems Biology, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, Liaoning, PR China. Electronic address: yqsun@dlmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yeqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D018499:Linear Energy Transfer; D008954:Models, Biological; D016011:Normal Distribution; D011839:Radiation, Ionizing
keywords: Cell killing; Compound Poisson distribution; Gaussian distribution; Ionizing radiation; Multitarget model