A nanodosimetry-based linear-quadratic model of cell survival for mixed-LET radiations.

A new nanodosimetry-based linear-quadratic (LQ) model of cell survival for mixed-LET radiations has been developed. The new model employs three physical quantities and three biological quantities. The three physical quantities are related to energy depositions at two nanometre scales, 5 nm and 25 nm. The three biological quantities are related to the lesion production and interaction probabilities and the lesion repair rate. The coefficients alpha and beta of the LQ formula (alpha D + beta D(2)) are explicitly expressed in terms of the three physical quantities and the three biological quantities. The new model is shown to be consistent with the previously published cell survival curves of V-79 cells. The advantage of this new model is that it can be conveniently adopted to estimate the iso-effect for radiotherapies that involve ionizing radiation of mixed LET. An example is given to estimate the cell survival fractions for a high-dose-rate mixed neutron and gamma-ray field from a (252)Cf source.