Radiation Medicine and Protection

With the development of social economy and radiotherapy technique, proton/heavy ion radiotherapy has been applied widely to clinical practices. At present, there are at least 29 hospitals in China at various stages of planning, construction, commissioning or clinical operation of medical proton/heavy ion beam radiotherapy equipment. Compared with common radiotherapy accelerators used in conventional external beam radiotherapy, the proton/heavy ion therapy system has more stringent requirements for quality control so as to achieve an optimum therapeutic effect. In order to protect the health rights of patients undergoing radiotherapy, to facilitate the relevant administrative supervision departments to carry out standard-based approval and routine supervision and to promote the development of related medical undertakings, the standard for testing of quality control for medical proton/heavy ion beam radiotherapy equipment is drafted to fill the gap in this regard in China and even worldwide. The standard contains five indicators and corresponding testing methods for radiological protection and safety and 16 indicators for quality control of equipment performance. The standard is a mandatory standard and is based on the relevant Chinese legal requirements for the testing of radiotherapy equipment, so all the indicators listed in the standard shall be tested. During the drafting of the standard, the opinions from hospitals that are currently using proton/heavy ion medical accelerators for radiotherapy purpose and from the related equipment manufacturers were taken into account. The draft standard was revised with reference to these opinions and the feasibility of the related quality control requirements. The official version of the standard was released on March 7, 2023, and implementation is scheduled to begin on March 1, 2024.

Jilong Yuan

Xiangjie Ma

Quanfu Sun

Haikuan Liu

Shouping Xu

Yinxiangzi Sheng

Xiaoyun Ma

Xiangkui Mu

Xinguo Liu

Tao Yang

Xin Zhang

Hsiao-Ming Lu

Jinsheng Cheng

A new Chinese standard for testing of quality control in medical proton/heavy ion beam radiotherapy equipment

医疗质子/重离子束放疗设备质量控制测试新标准

The annex A of the UNSCEAR 2020/2021 Report presented a comprehensive global estimate of frequencies and doses from medical exposure to ionizing radiation, their distribution and trends for the period 2009–2018. The annex considered four general categories of medical practice using ionizing radiation: (a) diagnostic radiology, including dental radiology and computed tomography, (b) interventional radiology (image-guided interventional procedures), (c) nuclear medicine, and (d) radiation therapy. In the period 2009–2018, about 4.2 billion medical radiological examinations were performed annually, resulting in an annual effective dose of 0.57 mSv per caput. The use of computed tomography has continued to grow and the contribution from interventional radiology has increased rapidly in recent years. The annual number of radionuclide therapy treatments has increased by 60 % since the UNSCEAR 2008 Report, while the number of courses of radiation therapy has increased by 22 %. Medical exposure remains by far the largest human-made source of radiation exposure to the public. The Committee's evaluation relies on the collection of up-to-date and representative exposure data from all Member States of the United Nations. Future exposure survey should be more relevant and useful and adapted to changing data sources and changing uses of radiation across the world.

Jing Chen

A summary of UNSCEAR's evaluation on medical exposure to ionizing radiation and call for more representative data

UNSCEAR关于医疗照射电离辐射评估的总结及对更具代表性数据的呼吁

The hematopoietic system is susceptible to ionizing radiation (IR), which can cause acute hematopoietic failure or long-term myelosuppression. As the most primitive cells of the hematopoietic hierarchy, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) maintain lifelong hematopoietic homeostasis and promote hematopoietic regeneration during stress. Numerous studies have shown that nuclear and mitochondrial genomes are the main targets of radiation injury in HSCs. More importantly, the damage of DNA may trigger a series of biological responses that largely determine HSC fate following IR exposure. Although some essential pathways and factors involved in DNA injury and damage in HSCs have been revealed, a comprehensive understanding of the biological effects of radiation on HSCs still needs to be improved. This review focuses on recent insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying DNA damage and repair in HSCs after IR. Then summarize corresponding regulatory measures, which may provide a reference for further research in this field.

Yanying Liu

Naicheng Chen

Fang Chen

Hao Zeng

Lijing Yang

Junping Wang

Mengjia Hu

The DNA damage and regulatory strategy in hematopoietic stem cells after irradiation exposure: Progress and challenges

辐射暴露后造血干细胞的DNA损伤及调控策略：进展与挑战

The annex D of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) 2020/2021 Report presented a comprehensive global estimate of occupational exposure to ionizing radiation. The worldwide annual number of workers exposed to natural and human-made sources of ionizing radiation was estimated to be approximately 24 million in the period 2010–2014. About 52% of those were employed in the sectors that involve exposure to natural sources of radiation. The worldwide average annual effective dose for all workers during the period 2010–2014 was estimated to be around 1.2 mSv – about 2/3 of the value estimated for the period 1995–1999. The annual effective dose was estimated to be around 2.0 mSv for workers exposed to natural sources and 0.5 mSv for workers exposed to human-made sources. The overriding limitation of current evaluation was the low rate of participation by United Nations Member States in providing occupational exposure monitoring data, especially data from non-nuclear sectors and occupational sectors involving naturally occurring radioactive materials. As the assessment of the worldwide occupational exposure is a complex task, the Committee relies on the collection of up-to-date data on occupational exposure from United Nations Member States in a broad range of occupational sectors, and continues collaboration with international organizations.

A summary of UNSCEAR's evaluation on occupational exposure to ionizing radiation and call for more representative data in broader range of occupational sectors

联合国原子辐射影响问题科学委员会关于职业性电离辐射暴露评估的总结及对更广泛职业领域更具代表性数据的呼吁

Fast neutrons have sufficient energy to liberate recoil protons, alpha particles, and other products when they interact with the nuclei of the target material through scattering and absorption processes. Physical interactions with biological tissues occur mainly with hydrogen nuclei and as the protons interact with the hydrogen in tissues, they create dense ionization chains along their tracks thus depositing energy. Fast neutron therapy was pioneered by Robert Stone in 1938 a few years after the discovery of the neutron. Its main advantage is the limited sensitivity to hypoxia and treatment of slow-growing tumors hence better local control. This is where photon therapy has yet to have much success. Energy deposition by fast neutrons in living tissues is higher than in conventional radiotherapy using mega voltage (MV) photon beams. This higher energy deposition gives fast neutrons a higher relative biological effectiveness (RBE) in dealing with certain tumors. Fast neutrons also have a higher linear energy transfer (LET) and can reach deep-sited tumors better than photon therapy. The main challenge with Fast neutron therapy has been extreme toxicity in late-reacting tissues. Overall, fast neutron therapy holds potential for the treatment of certain tumors by leveraging the unique interaction characteristics of fast neutrons with biological tissues. This review therefore intends to bring this uniqueness to light to enhance the understanding of the radiobiological properties of fast neutrons and the advantages associated with its therapy.

Festo Kiragga

Konstantin Brazovskiy

Exploiting the unique interaction characteristics of fast neutrons for improved cancer therapy: A radiobiological perspective

利用快中子独特的相互作用特性改进癌症治疗：放射生物学视角

Vijith A. P Karunakara N

An update on soil gas harvesting technique as a non-depleting source of 222Rn for a large volume calibration chamber for long-term exposure experiments

土壤气体采收技术最新进展：作为长期暴露实验大型校准腔室中222Rn的非耗竭性来源

Weihai Zhuo

Qiuju Guo

Research needs, measurements and behaviours of environmental radon

环境氡的研究需求、测量方法与行为特征

Kapil Dev Maharaj

Mahsheed Sabet

Joshua Dass

Mounir Ibrahim

Talat Mahmood

Pejman Rowshanfarzad

Comprehensive analysis of peripheral dose in electron beam therapy with a Varian TrueBeam Linac

Varian TrueBeam直线加速器电子束治疗中周围剂量的综合分析

Tomas Palmqvist

Milagrosa Lopez-Riego

Martin Bucher

Ursula Oestreicher

Stefan Pojtinger

Ulrich Giesen

Iuliana Toma-Dasu

Andrzej Wojcik

Biological effectiveness of combined exposure to neutrons and gamma radiation applied in two orders of sequence: Relevance for biological dosimetry after nuclear emergencies

中子与伽马射线联合暴露的生物学效应：核紧急情况下生物剂量测定的相关性

Publication Information	Publisher: Elsevier B.V.，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 2020，Proportion of original research papers: ，Self Citation Rate:， Gold OA Rate:

Radiation Medicine and Protection

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