Equivalency of the quality of sublethal lesions after photons and high-linear energy transfer ion beams.

The quality of the sublethal damage (SLD) after irradiation with high-linear energy transfer (LET) ion beams was investigated with low-LET photons. Chinese hamster V79 cells and human squamous carcinoma SAS cells were first exposed to a priming dose of different ion beams at different LETs at the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in the Chiba facility. The cells were kept at room temperature and then exposed to a secondary test dose of X-rays.