The application of track calculations to radiobiology. III. Analysis of the molecular beam experiment results.

Survival data from the molecular beam experiment are used to obtain an estimate of the function gamma (chi), describing the probability for two energy transfers a distance chi apart to produce a lesion. A comparison is made between the functions gamma (chi) obtained using proximity functions calculated with Monte Carlo-generated tracks and with simplifying assumptions (the LET approximation). The results differ substantially, which shows that the results are very sensitive to the degree of detail used in characterizing the physics of the irradiating field.