[The relationship between radiation doses and their effects]

Dose-effect relationships have been developed both for the biological effects studied by Radiobiology and the long-term pathological effects (malignant diseases) studied by Radiation Protection. The former approach chiefly considers the primary biological injuries at the cellular level, and the relationship between the dependent variable characteristic of the effect and the dose--an independent variable--has an explanatory meaning. The parameters associated to the independent variable have a biophysical signification and fit into a model of the action of ionizing radiations. In the latter approach, the relationship is pragmatic and the previous parameters are just the result of a curve-fitting procedure realized on experimental or human data. The biophysical models have led to a general formulation associating a linear term to a quadratic term both of them weighted by an exponential term describing cellular killing at the highest doses. To a certain extent the curves obtained for leukemias, bronchopulmonary and breast cancers prove the validity of the pragmatic model.