Track structure, radiation quality and initial radiobiological events: Considerations based on the PARTRAC code experience

Abstract

The importance of the track structure is underlined, in particular the dependence of a given late cellular effect on the spatial distribution of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) along the radiation track. These results show that the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) for DSB production can be significantly larger than 1. Moreover the cluster properties of high LET radiation may determine specific initial targets and damage evolution.