Biological effects in normal cells exposed to FLASH dose rate protons.

BACKGROUND: Radiotherapy outcomes are limited by toxicity in the healthy tissues surrounding the irradiated tumor. Recent pre-clinical studies have shown that irradiations with electrons or photons delivered at so called FLASH dose rates (i.e. >40 Gy/s) dramatically reduce adverse side effects in the normal tissues while being equally efficient for tumor control as irradiations at conventional dose rates (3-5 cGy/s). In the case of protons however, FLASH effects have not been investigated partially because of the limited availability of facilities that can achieve such high dose rates.

METHODS: Using a novel irradiation platform, we measured acute and long-term biological effects in normal human lung fibroblasts (IMR90) exposed to therapeutically relevant doses of 4.5 MeV protons (LET = 10 keV/µm) delivered at dose rates spanning four orders of magnitude. Endpoints included clonogenic cell survival, γH2AX foci formation, induction of premature senescence (β-gal), and the expression of the pro-inflammatory marker TGFβ.

RESULTS: Proton dose rate had no influence on the cell survival, but for the highest dose rate used (i.e. 1000 Gy/s) foci formation saturated beyond 10 Gy. In the progeny of irradiated cells, an increase in dose (20 Gy vs. 10 Gy) and dose rate (1000 Gy/s vs. 0.05 Gy/s) positively affected the number of senescence cells and the expression of TGFβ1.

CONCLUSIONS: In normal lung fibroblasts proton dose rate had little impact on acute effects, but significantly influenced the expression of long-term biological responses in vitro. Compared to conventional dose rates, protons delivered at FLASH dose rates mitigated such delayed detrimental effects.