Cell type dependent effectiveness of tumour cell inactivation by radiation with increased ionisation density

Radiation with increased ionization density, LET, will in the near future be applied in targeted radiotherapy and has already, to some degree, been applied in external radiotherapy with accelerated ions. There are indications from the literature that different types of cells are sensitized differently when the LET is increased. Radiation with three different ionisation densities was applied in the present study; 0.8 keV/microns photons from a reference 60Co source, 6 keV/microns helium ions from the entrance region of a monoenergetic helium ion beam and 25 keV/microns from a range modulated helium beam. Three types of cultured cells were analysed: human colon carcinoma LS-174T, human glioma U-343MG and hamster embryonic lung V79-379A. There were interesting differences between the cell types; the LS-174T cells showed strong sensitization already at an LET of 6 keV/microns and there was nearly no difference between the shape of the survival curves after irradiation with 6 or 25 keV/microns. The V79-379A cells were less sensitive to the 6 keV/microns radiation quality and the survival curve was, in this case, very similar to the reference 60Co survival curve. However, the V79-379A cells were sensitized when exposed to the 25 keV/microns helium ions. The U-343MG cells were intermediate in the sense that the 6 keV/microns curve fell in between the 60Co and the 25 keV/microns curves. These variations indicate that different types of cells react differently to changes in LET and that this is probably of special interest for intermediate LET radiation. Some cells might be easily sensitized by intermediate LET qualities while others might be more resistant and this is of importance for the future optimization of radiation treatment with both targeted agents and accelerated ions.