Clustered DNA Damage and its Complexity: Tracking the History.

The concept of radiation-induced clustered damage in DNA has grown over the past several decades to become a topic of considerable interest across the scientific disciplines involved in studies of the biological effects of ionizing radiation. This paper, prepared for the 70th anniversary issue of Radiation Research, traces historical development of the three main threads of physics, chemistry, and biochemical/cellular responses that led to the hypothesis and demonstration that a key component of the biological effectiveness of ionizing radiation is its characteristic of producing clustered DNA damage of varying complexities. The physics thread has roots that started as early as the 1920s, grew to identify critical nanometre-scale clusterings of ionizations relevant to biological effectiveness, and then, by the turn of the century, had produced an extensive array of quantitative predictions on the complexity of clustered DNA damage from different radiations.

Neutrons are forever! Historical perspectives.

Neutrons were an active field of radiobiology at the time of publication of the first issues of the International Journal of Radiation Biology in 1959. Three back-to-back papers published by Neary and his colleagues contain key elements of interest at the time. The present article aims to put these papers into context with the discovery of the neutron 27 years previously and then give a feel for how the field has progressed to the present day.

BIOLOGICAL EFFECTIVENESS OF LOWER-ENERGY PHOTONS FOR CANCER RISK.

For risk assessment of photon exposures, the energy-dependence of relative effectiveness may be required. The NCRP has recently addressed this need by reviewing the available evidence from various fields of study and making recommendations for the effectiveness ratio of lower-energy photons, for the purposes of quantitative uncertainty analysis for specific cancer risk assessments where lower-energy photons and electrons are involved. The present paper provides a personal discussion of selected aspects of the evidence and analysis; it highlights the key role of low-energy electrons in determining biological effectiveness.

A New Standard DNA Damage (SDD) Data Format.

Our understanding of radiation-induced cellular damage has greatly improved over the past few decades. Despite this progress, there are still many obstacles to fully understand how radiation interacts with biologically relevant cellular components, such as DNA, to cause observable end points such as cell killing. Damage in DNA is identified as a major route of cell killing.