Statistical effects of dose deposition in track-structure modelling of radiobiology efficiency

TL;DR

This paper examines how ion-induced cell killing depends on dose and projectile parameters, analyzing the limitations of current models in capturing stochastic effects of dose deposition at microscopic scales.

Contribution

It compares the Local Effect Model and Katz Model, highlighting their limitations in accounting for stochastic dose effects in ion irradiation.

Findings

Radial dose models are sensitive to ion parameters.

Current models lack full consistency with microscopic dose statistics.

Stochastic effects are significant in ion-induced cell killing.

Abstract

Ion-induced cell killing has been reported to depend on the irradiation dose but also on the projectile parameters. In this paper we focus on two approaches developed and extensively used to predict cell survival in response to ion irradiation: the Local Effect Model and the Katz Model. These models are based on a track-structure description summarized in the concept of radial dose. This latter is sensitive to ion characteristics parameters and gives to both models the ability to predict some important radiobiological features for ion irradiations. Radial dose is however an average quantity, which does not include stochastic effects. These radiation-intrinsic effects are investigated by means of a Monte-Carlo simulation of dose deposition. We show that both models are not fully consistent with the nanometric and microscopic dose deposition statistics.