ReviewInternational journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics2025
NRG Oncology White Paper on the Relative Biological Effectiveness in Proton Therapy.
Review in International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 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
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Non-cancer effects after proton beam therapy for pediatric tumors- a narrative review.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Pooled it
- Tissue-level RBE determination and normal lung responses along the proton SOBP.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2026Article
- Advancing Particle Therapy to Improve Cancer Care: Report on "2nd World Forum on Particle Therapy".International journal of particle therapy · 2026Review
- Norwegian consensus guidelines for selection of neuro-oncology patients to proton therapy.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2026Article
- Spread-Out Bragg Peak FLASH Radiotherapy for Head and Neck Reirradiation: A Treatment Planning Study.International journal of particle therapy · 2026Article
- Poly ADP Ribose Polymerase Inhibitors Potentiate Proton Therapy End-of-Range Effects by Accelerating Replication Forks and Promoting Transcription Conflict.International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · 2026Article
- Case Report: Proton beam therapy - friend or foe for patients withFrontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Relative Biological Effectiveness-Clinical Practice at US Proton Therapy Centers.International journal of particle therapy · 2025Article
- Assessing the Relative Contribution of DSB Repair Proteins as a Function of LET.International journal of particle therapy · 2025Article
- Critical review of patient outcome study in head and neck cancer radiotherapy.Meta-radiology · 2025Article
- Variable Relative Biological Effectiveness of Protons in the Rat Spinal Cord: Measurements and Comparison With Model Calculations.Advances in radiation oncology · 2025Article
- Embracing the Future of Clinical Trials in Radiation Therapy: An NRG Oncology CIRO Technology Retreat Whitepaper on Pioneering Technologies and AI-Driven Solutions.International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · 2025Review
- Article
- Enabling clinical use of linear energy transfer in proton therapy for head and neck cancer - A review of implications for treatment planning and adverse events study.Visualized cancer medicine · 2025Article
- Recommendations for reporting and evaluating proton therapy beyond dose and constant relative biological effectiveness.Physics and imaging in radiation oncology · 2025Article
- Proton Therapy in Uveal Melanoma.Cancers · 2024Review
- Case report: Cancer-free survival after chemotherapy, targeted immunotherapy combination with proton therapy following space making technique in a patient with cholangiocarcinoma after choledochal cyst resection.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
This position paper, led by the NRG Oncology Particle Therapy Work Group, focuses on the concept of relative biologic effect (RBE) in clinical proton therapy (PT), with the goal of providing recommendations for the next-generation clinical trials with PT on the best practice of investigating and using RBE, which could deviate from the current standard proton RBE value of 1.1 relative to photons. In part 1, current clinical utilization and practice are reviewed, giving the context and history of RBE. Evidence for variation in RBE is presented along with the concept of linear energy transfer (LET). The intertwined nature of tumor radiobiology, normal tissue constraints, and treatment planning with LET and RBE considerations is then reviewed. Part 2 summarizes current and past clinical data and then suggests the next steps to explore and employ tools for improved dynamic models for RBE. In part 3, approaches and methods for the next generation of prospective clinical trials are explored, with the goal of optimizing RBE to be both more reflective of clinical reality and also deployable in trials to allow clinical validation and interpatient comparisons. These concepts provide the foundation for personalized biologic treatments reviewed in part 4. Finally, we conclude with a summary including short- and long-term scientific focus points for clinical PT. The practicalities and capacity to use RBE in treatment planning are reviewed and considered with more biological data in hand. The intermediate step of LET optimization is summarized and proposed as a potential bridge to the ultimate goal of case-specific RBE planning that can be achieved as a hypothesis-generating tool in near-term proton trials.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.