A phenomenological relative biological effectiveness (RBE) model for proton therapy based on all published in vitro cell survival data

摘要

PurposeProton therapy treatments are currently planned and delivered using the assumption that the proton relative biological effectiveness (RBE) relative to photons is 1.1. This assumption ignores strong experimental evidence that suggests the RBE varies along the treatment field, i.e. with linear energy transfer (LET) and with tissue type. A recent review study collected over 70 experimental reports on proton RBE, providing a comprehensive dataset for predicting RBE for cell survival. Using this dataset we developed a model to predict proton RBE based on dose, LET and the ratio of the linear-quadratic model parameters for the reference radiation (α/β)x, as the tissue specific parameter.