Trainees Intellectual Forum ACADEMIC SESSION

BASIC RADIOBIOLOGY
SHARIB AHMED
Trainee Medical Physicist

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Introduction Ionizing radiation Linear energy transfer Direct and indirect action of radiation Biological effects of radiation Radiation dose and units

Radiobiology
Radiobiology is the study of the action of ionizing radiations on living things.

The absorption of energy from radiation in biologic material may lead to excitation or to ionization.
The raising of an electron in an atom or molecule to a higher energy level without actual ejection of the electron is called excitation. If the radiation has sufficient energy to eject one or more orbital electrons from the atom or molecule, the process is called ionization

The first Radiobiology experiment

Ionization
Ionization is the process of removing one or more electrons from atoms by the incident radiation leaving behind electrically charged particles (an electron and a positively charged ion) which may subsequently produce significant biological effects in the irradiated material.

Ionizing radiation
The important characteristic of ionizing radiation is the localized release of large amounts of energy.

The energy dissipated per ionizing event is about 33 eV, which is more than enough to break a strong chemical bond; for example, the energy associated with a C=C bond is 4.9 eV.
For convenience it is usual to classify ionizing radiations as electromagnetic or particulate.

X- and y-rays
X- and y-rays do not differ in nature or in properties; the designations x- or y-rays reflects the way in which they are produced.

X-rays are produced extranuclearly.y-rays are produced intranuclearly.

In practical terms this means that x-rays are produced in an electrical device that accelerates electrons to high energy and then stops them abruptly in a target, usually made of tungsten or gold. Part of the kinetic energy (the energy of motion) of the electrons is converted into x-rays. On the other hand, y-rays are emitted by radioactive isotopes; they represent excess energy that is given off as the unstable nucleus breaks up and decays in its efforts to reach a stable form.

Charged elementary particles

The passage of charged particles, electrons and positively charged ions, causes intense damage (energy deposition) to molecules along the path in living tissue due to strong electrostatic interactions between the travelling particle and the electrons of the atoms of the medium. Protons with one unit mass and one positive charge, cause less damage than particles (helium nuclei) because the rate of deposition of energy varies inversely in proportion to the velocity of the particle and directly in proportion to the square of the charge.

Charged elementary particles

particles:
They are a highly ionizing form of particulate radiation they usually have low penetration. They quickly lose their energy and they penetrate only a few tens of microns in body tissue.

Beta particles (, electrons):Beta particles (, electrons) are also

emitted by radioactive nuclei they carry a single negative charge but their path in absorbing materials such as tissue is erratic due to their light mass. Generally, beta particles do not penetrate further than the skin of the human body.

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Uncharged particles
Neutrons:
Uncharged particles with a mass very similar to that of a proton and are an indirectly ionizing radiation. Neutrons interact with the atomic nuclei of the medium and they lose energy by different interaction processes depending on their energy (velocity) and the mass of the encountered nucleus.

In soft tissues, because of the abundance of protons with mass equal to that of neutrons, fast neutrons (>1 MeV) mostly lose energy by elastic scattering through collision processes producing high energy recoil protons, which in turn deposit energy by electrostatic interactions with electrons in the tissue as described above.

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Ions
The nuclei of carbon, neon, silicon, argon atoms form charged ions when one or more orbital electrons have been stripped off.

Ions can be accelerated to hundreds of MeV energies in special accelerator facilities. High energy charged ions offer special advantages in cancer radiotherapy because of the energy distribution along their track which has a high peak at its end (the Bragg peak).
This allows the possibility of depositing high energy densities at depth in tissue but these facilities are as yet very limited on account of high costs and sophisticated technical requirements.

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Linear energy transfer

When ionizing radiations traverse through matter, they lose energy gradually through various interaction processes along the length of their path. For a particular absorber, the rate of loss of energy depends on the energy and type of radiation as well as the density of the material. The density of energy deposition in a material such as tissue is called the Linear Energy Transfer (LET) of the radiation. It is defined as the average energy deposited per unit length of track of radiation and the unit is keV/ m.

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Linear energy transfer

LET essentially indicates the quality of different types of radiation and is important because the biological effect of a radiation depends on its average LET. Charged particles generally have higher LET than X and rays because of their greater energy deposition along the track. In general the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of a radiation increases with its LET up to a value of about 100 keV/m and above this value starts to decline due to energy deposition in excess of that needed to cause the biological effect (overkill).

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TYPICAL LET VALUES OF IONIZING RADIATION

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ABSORPTION OF X-RAYS
Radiation may be classified as directly or indirectly ionizing. All of the charged particles previously discussed are directly ionizing Electromagnetic radiations (x- and y-rays) are indirectly ionizing. The process by which x-ray photons are absorbed depends on the energy of the photons concerned and the chemical composition of the absorbing material.

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DIRECT AND INDIRECT ACTION OF RADIATION

The biologic effects of radiation result principally from damage to DNA, which is the critical target.

If any form of radiationx- or y-rays, charged or uncharged particlesis absorbed in biologic material. The atoms of the target itself may be ionized or excited, thus initiating the chain of events that leads to a biologic change. This is called direct action of radiation.
Alternatively, the radiation may interact with other atoms or molecules in the cell (particularly water) to produce free radicals that are able to diffuse far enough to reach and damage the critical targets. This is called indirect action of radiation.

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DIRECT AND INDIRECT ACTION OF RADIATION

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INDIRECT ACTION

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Biological effects of radiation

Biological effects of radiation arise when ionizing radiation interacts with an organism/tissue and leaves some energy behind. The process by which electromagnetic photons are absorbed in matter depends on their energy and the atomic number of the absorbing material. Photons passing through matter transfer their energy through the following three main processes: photoelectric absorption, Compton scattering, and pair production.

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Photoelectric absorption
In photoelectric absorption, the photon interacts with a bound inner shell electron in the atom of the absorbing medium and transfers its entire energy to the electron ejecting it from the occupied atomic shell. The photoelectric effect is the dominant energy transfer mechanism for X and ray photons having energies below 50 keV in biological tissues, but it is much less important at higher energies.

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Compton scattering
The incident photon interacts with the outer orbital electron whose binding energy is very low compared with that of the incident photon. In this interaction, the incident photon transfers energy to an atomic electron causing its ejection from the atom. The photon is scattered with the remainder of the original energy in a different direction to that of the incident photon. Compton scatter thus causes ionization of the absorbing atom due to loss of an electron. The probability of compton scattering Decreases with increasing photon energy. It is the principal absorption mechanism for X and rays in the intermediate energy range Of 100 kev to 10 mev. This range is in the therapeutic radiation range

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Pair production
When a photon of high energy ( >1.02 MeV) interacts with atoms of the medium, the incident photon can be spontaneously converted into the mass of an electron and positron pair by interaction of the Coulomb force in the vicinity of the nucleus. The oppositedly charged particles are emitted in opposite directions to each other and cause damage as secondary charge particles.

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Dependence of absorption on atomic number

Compton process is nearly independent of atomic number. Compton and photoelectric effects are vital for appropriate applications in X- ray diagnosis and cancer therapy. In radiotherapy, high-energy photons in the range of 1-10 MeV are preferred because absorbed dose is nearly the same in bone and soft issues whereas low energy photons are preferred in diagnosis because of the much desired large contrast in absorption of these tissues.

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Radiation dose and units

The biochemical changes produced by ionizing radiations are the fundamental events leading to radiation damage in tissues. Radiation is measured either as exposure or as absorbed dose. The absorbed dose is the amount of energy absorbed in a system.

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Radiation dose and units

Exposure:
The radiation exposure is a measure of radiation based on its ability to produce ionization in air under standard temperature and pressure. The (S.I.) unit for exposure is Coulombs/kg in air (or Roentgen R in old units: 1 R = 2.58 x 10-4 C/kg air). The unit of exposure is only defined for air and cannot be used to describe dose to tissue. Conversion factors to calculate absorbed dose from exposure have been carefully documented for different radiation energies and tissues.

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Radiation dose and units

Absorbed dose:
The amount of energy absorbed per mass is known as radiation dose. Radiation dose is the energy (Joules) absorbed per unit mass of tissue and has the (S.I.) units of gray (1 Gy = 1 J/kg). In the past the rad (radiation absorbed dose) was used, where 100 rad = 1 Gy (1 rad = 1cGy).

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Radiation dose and units

Equivalent dose:
As discussed above the biological effectiveness (RBE) of each type of radiation varies greatly depending largely on LET. For radiation protection and occupational exposure purposes the term equivalent dose is used to compare the biological effectiveness of different types of radiation to tissues. The (S.I.) dose equivalent (HT) in Sievert (Sv) is the product of the absorbed dose (DT) in the tissue multiplied by a radiation weighting factor (WR) often called the QUALITY FACTOR. [(HT) = (WR) x (DT)]

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SUMMARY OF RADIATION DOSES AND UNITS

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Effective dose
Effective Dose is used to estimate the risk of radiation in humans. It is sum of the products of equivalent doses to each organ/tissue (HT) and the tissue weighting factor (WT). The unit of effective dose is the Sievert (Sv).

E = (WT) x (HT)

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Collective dose
Collective dose is defined as the dose received per person in Sv multiplied by the number of persons exposed per year i.e. man-sievert per year. This unit is generally used for protection purposes and in population response calculations.

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References
I. RADIATION BIOLOGY: A HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS, IAEA II.Radiobiology for the Radiologist Eric J. Hall, D.PHIL., D.SC, F.A.C.R., F.R.C.R.

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