This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Jones, B Articles by G Dale, R Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Jones, B Articles by G Dale, R

Calculation of high-LET radiotherapy dose required for compensation of overall treatment time extensions

¹ Birmingham Cancer Centre, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Birmingham B15 2TH, ² Department of Radiotherapy Physics & Radiobiology, Charing Cross Hospital, London W6 8RF, UK

A method is presented that allows biological effective dose (BED) equations to be used to calculate compensatory doses for treatment time extensions when high-LET (linear energy transfer) radiotherapy schedules are used. The principles involved are the same as those for low-LET radiations, but incorporate two relative biological effectiveness (RBE) factors, RBE_max and RBE_min, which represent the RBE at very low and very high fraction doses, respectively, with the actual RBE changing between these extremes. The method has the advantage that low-LET / ratios and low-LET daily dose-equivalent repopulation factors are used in the calculations. The daily dose repopulation equivalents and increments in dose per fraction in the case of high LET radiotherapy are smaller than those for low LET.