Irradiation

Physics

Mathematics

Relative biological effectiveness

Mathematical analysis

Variable (mathematics)

Nuclear physics

Medical physics

Proton

Medicine

Radiotherapy and Oncology

Clinical use of a constant proton Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE) value of 1.1 began in the late 1970′s: 1.1 was a pragmatic average value, determined from skin reactions observed in mice [1]. Yet, at that time, Tepper and his colleagues in Boston remarked: “In those systems where the small intestine were the limiting tissue in a clinical situation, we would assume an RBE of 1.2. As the RBE almost certainly depends on the tissue system studied, further work needs to be performed on a variety of in-vivo systems with fractionated radiation and with physical doses per fraction in the clinical range” [1].

A systematic review of clinical studies on variable proton Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE)