An overview of recent charged-particle radiation biology in Italy

Radiobiology with charged particles is being carried out in Italy since several decades, starting with the experiments with protons in Milan. Later, also other groups entered the field, such as those in Naples, in Legnaro (LNL) and in Rome. In the last 10-15 years the activities in the field began to grow in a significant way. This happened in concomitance with the involvement of various researchers and Institutions in European and international projects devoted to radiation protection aspects, such as those aimed at elucidating and modelling radiation action mechanisms (EC/EU) and those aimed at radiation protection in space (NASA). A special role has been played since then by the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro of the INFN, where a radiobiology facility for low energy light ions was set up and operated in 1985. A formidable stimulus for charged-particle radiobiology was more recently given by the onset of plans for developing hadrontherapy Centres in Italy. The TERA Foundation first, and than the TOP Project at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, at the same time favoured the spreading in Italy of radiobiology research with charged particles and encouraged co-operation among various groups. The Italian radiobiology community, though relatively small, developed a number of valuable activities with charged particles, mostly at the cellular and molecular levels, that span from mechanisms of radiation action to radiation protection in space and to therapy with charged hadrons. In this article, due to space limitations, we have just been able to list the present activities and to briefly review some research that forms a common background for the various areas. This includes the work on Chinese hamster V79 cells irradiated with light ions at LNL, that provided extensive data on the relationships between radiation quality, molecular damage and cellular effects, and the related work aimed at possible interpretation by mechanistic models. It appears that the multiplicity of objectives does not represent a factor of weakness for the relatively small Italian radiobiology community. Synergistic effects have been found because the basic radiobiology is the same for different areas such as radiation protection and hadrontherapy, and because the expertise and the methods developed for a given purpose may find useful applications in others. Though it is difficult to forecast the future development in Italy of the various areas that will take advantage of charged-particle radiobiology, it is expected that hadrontherapy and space radiation protection together, independently of their relative weight, will be important driving forces for the future development of the field in our Country.