Liver Cancer
Copyright ©2005 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 14, 2005; 11(10): 1452-1456
Published online Mar 14, 2005. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i10.1452
Impact of prolonged fraction dose-delivery time modeling intensity-modulated radiation therapy on hepatocellular carcinoma cell killing
Xiao-Kang Zheng, Long-Hua Chen, Xiao Yan, Hong-Mei Wang
Xiao-Kang Zheng, Long-Hua Chen, Xiao Yan, Hong-Mei Wang, Department of Radiation Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, The Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, No. 013056
Correspondence to: Long-Hua Chen, Department of Radiation Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, The Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong Province, China. zkn1268@fimmu.com
Telephone: +86-20-61642136 Fax: +86-20-61642131
Received: August 31, 2004
Revised: September 2, 2004
Accepted: November 26, 2004
Published online: March 14, 2005
Abstract

AIM: To explore the impact of prolonged fraction dose-delivery time modeling intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) on cell killing of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) HepG2 and Hep3B cell lines.

METHODS: The radiobiological characteristics of human HCC HepG2 and Hep3b cell lines were studied with standard clonogenic assays, using standard linear-quadratic model and incomplete repair model to fit the dose-survival curves. The identical methods were also employed to investigate the biological effectiveness of irradiation protocols modeling clinical conventional fractionated external beam radiotherapy (EBRT, fraction delivery time 3 min) and IMRT with different prolonged fraction delivery time (15, 30, and 45 min). The differences of cell surviving fraction irradiated with different fraction delivery time were tested with paired t-test. Factors determining the impact of prolonged fraction delivery time on cell killing were analyzed.

RESULTS: The α/β and repair half-time (T1/2) of HepG2 and Hep3b were 3.1 and 7.4 Gy, and 22 and 19 min respectively. The surviving fraction of HepG2 irradiated modeling IMRT with different fraction delivery time was significantly higher than irradiated modeling EBRT and the cell survival increased more pronouncedly with the fraction delivery time prolonged from 15 to 45 min, while no significant differences of cell survival in Hep3b were found between different fraction delivery time protocols.

CONCLUSION: The prolonged fraction delivery time modeling IMRT significantly decreased the cell killing in HepG2 but not in Hep3b. The capability of sub-lethal damage repair was the predominant factor determining the cell killing decrease. These effects, if confirmed by clinical studies, should be considered in designing IMRT treatments for HCC.

Keywords: Prolonged delivery time; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Radiation therapy