Assessment of Radiobiological α/β Ratio in Lung Cancer and Fibroblast Cell Lines Using Viability Assays

Background/Aim: Altered fractionation is an area of intense clinical research in radiation oncology. Estimation of the alpha/beta ratio of individual carcinomas after establishment of primary cell cultures from tumor biopsies may prove of importance in the individualization of radiotherapy schemes. Materials and Methods: Here we proposed a simple method to estimate the alpha/beta ratio in cultured cell lines ( two lung carcinomas: A549 and H1299; one lung fibroblast cell line: MRC5), using viability assays. Results: For the A549 cell line, the alpha/beta ratio ranged from 14-25 Gy, for H1299 from 11-43 Gy and for the MRC5 fibroblast cell line this was far lower, ranging from 0.69 to 6 Gy. The alpha/beta ratio decreased when extracted from comparisons of lower dose per fraction schemes. Conclusion: The alpha/beta ratio of a cell line can be easily defined after simple viability/dose fractionation experiments.