The Carcinogenic Risks of Low-LET and High-LET Ionizing Radiations.

RBE-LET relationships of high-LET radiations in Drosophila mutations.

The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of 252Cf neutrons and synchrotron-generated high-energy charged particles for mutation induction was evaluated as a function of linear energy transfer (LET), using the loss of heterozygosity for wing-hair mutations and the reversion of the mutant white-ivory eye-color in Drosophila melanogaster. Loss of heterozygosity for wing-hair mutations results p...

RBE vs. dose for low doses of high-let radiations.

According to track theory, the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of high linear energy transfer (LET) radiations varies with cellular radiosensitivity parameters and the radiation environment. Of special interest is that the RBE varies as the dose of high-LET radiation to the power (1/m - 1) where m is the "target number" parameter, which varies from 2-4 in different cell lines. This appl...

Quality factor for low doses of high-LET radiations.

High LET constraints on low LET survival.

Survival curves for biological cells irradiated with gamma rays (and other low LET radiations) cannot be properly interpreted without examining the implications of these interpretations for high LET radiations. The theory of RBE demands that the RBE of any high LET radiation field is at most one when the probability for cell killing as a function of the absorbed dose of gamma rays is linear or ...

Scaling Human Cancer Risks from Low LET to High LET when Dose-Effect Relationships are Complex.

Health risks from space radiations, particularly from densely ionizing radiations, represent an important challenge for long-ranged manned space missions. Reliable methods are needed for scaling low-LET to high-LET radiation risks for humans, based on animal or in vitro studies comparing these radiations. The current standard metric, relative biological effectiveness (RBE) compares iso-effect d...