ReviewThe British journal of radiology2019
Proton relative biological effectiveness (RBE): a multiscale problem.
Review in The British journal of radiology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Charged particle therapy for high-grade gliomas in adults: a systematic review.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2023Pooled it
- Dynamic Proton arc therapy for paediatric parameningeal rhabdomyosarcoma.Journal of applied clinical medical physics · 2026Article
- Modern proton therapy in prostate cancer: precision in practice.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- Extending the microdosimetry gamma model (MGM) to estimate induced DNA damage and its complexity at macroscopic scale by protons and helium ions.Physics in medicine and biology · 2025Article
- Developing a comparative photon-proton planning service in Victoria: the experience at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.Journal of medical radiation sciences · 2024Article
- Is proton beam therapy always better than photon irradiation? Lessons from two cases.Journal of medical radiation sciences · 2024Article
- Toward a Transportable Cell Culture Platform for Evaluating Radiotherapy Dose Modifying Factors.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Review
- Repair Kinetics of DSB-Foci Induced by Proton and α-Particle Microbeams of Different Energies.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Modelling variable proton relative biological effectiveness for treatment planning.The British journal of radiology · 2020Review
- The impact of proton LET/RBE modeling and robustness analysis on base-of-skull and pediatric craniopharyngioma proton plans relative to VMAT.Acta oncologica (Stockholm, Sweden) · 2019Article
- Comparison of Proton and Photon Beam Irradiation in Radiation-Induced Intestinal Injury Using a Mouse Model.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Proton radiotherapy is undergoing rapid expansion both within the UK and internationally, but significant challenges still need to be overcome if maximum benefit is to be realised from this technique. One major limitation is the persistent uncertainty in proton relative biological effectiveness (RBE). While RBE values are needed to link proton radiotherapy to our existing experience with photon radiotherapy, RBE remains poorly understood and is typically incorporated as a constant dose scaling factor of 1.1 in clinical plans. This is in contrast to extensive experimental evidence indicating that RBE is a function of dose, tissue type, and proton linear energy transfer, among other parameters. In this article, we discuss the challenges associated with obtaining clinically relevant values for proton RBE through commonly-used assays, and highlight the wide range of other experimental end points which can inform our understanding of RBE. We propose that accurate and robust optimization of proton radiotherapy ultimately requires a multiscale understanding of RBE, integrating subcellular, cellular, and patient-level processes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.