Conventional radiotherapy remains to be one of the most useful treatments for cancer, but it is not the best strategy to maximize the effects on the tumors and minimize the damage to the surrounding tissues because of its physical and radiobiological characteristics. Synchrotrons represent a unique method for an innovative anti-cancer treatment due to the physical features (i.e. high fluence, tunable and collimated) of X-ray induced by synchrotron, so photon activation therapy and microbeam radiation treatment have been developed, but it is very imperative to understand the radiobiological mechanism of synchrotron radiation before we could transfer the strategy into the clinic. This paper is to summary the results of in vitro and in vivo experiments with synchrotron radiation, and review the advances of molecular and cellular radiobiological mechanism involved in synchrotron radiation. Since Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) has produced the first synchrotron, it will provide the unique opportunity for the study of radiobiological effects of synchrotron radiation.
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