Comparison of the clonogenic survival of A549 non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma cells after irradiation with low-dose-rate beta particles and high-dose-rate X-rays.

Purpose: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death. Among the new modalities to treat cancer, internal radiotherapy seems to be very promising. However, the achievable dose-rate is two orders of magnitude lower than the one used in conventional external radiotherapy, and data has to be collected to evaluate the cell response to highlight the potential effectiveness of low-dose-rate beta particles irradiation.