Correlation between cell death and induction of non-rejoining PCC breaks by carbon-ion beams

We have shown a correlation between cell death and induction of non-rejoining chromatin breaks in two normal human cells and three human tumor cell lines irradiated by carbon-ion beams and X rays. Non-rejoining chromatin breaks were measured by counting the number of remaining chromatin fragments detected by the premature chromosome condensation (PCC) technique. Carbon-ion beams were accelerated by the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC). The cells were irradiated by two different mono-LET beams (LET = 13 keV/micrometer and 77 keV/micrometer ) and 200 kV X rays. The RBE values of cell death for carbon-ion beams relative to X rays were 1.1 to 1.4 for 13 keV/micrometer beams and 2.5 to 2.9 for 77 keV/micrometer beams. The induction rate of non-rejoining PCC breaks per cell per Gy was found to be highest for the 77 keV/micrometer beams for all of the cell lines. The results found in this study show that there is a good correlation between cell death and induction of non-rejoining PCC breaks for these human cell lines.