Estimation of the RBE of mammography-quality beams using a combination of a Monte Carlo code with a B-DNA geometrical model.

The PENELOPE code is used to determine direct strand break yields corresponding to photons from a (60)Co source and 28 and 30 kV x-ray beams impacting on a B-DNA geometrical model, which accounts for five organizational levels of the human genetic material. Direct single, double and total strand break probabilities are determined in a liquid water homogeneous medium with 1.06 g cm(-3) density. The spectra produced by the x-ray beams at various depths in the phantom have been used to study the dependence of the damage yield on the depth. The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) is also estimated using the (60)Co radiation qualities as the reference. According to this work, the damage probabilities and thus the RBE are, within the uncertainties, similar for both x-ray energies and are independent of the depth into the phantom. Furthermore, the total strand break yield is invariant with respect to the energy of the incident photons. The RBE for low-energy x-ray beams determined here (1.3 ± 0.1) is lower than that reported by Kellerer, taking into account that he used a 200 kV radiation as the reference quality. However, our RBE values are consistent with those determined by Kühne et al (2005 Radiat. Res. 164 669-76), which used the same biological endpoint and reference quality as our study. Also, our RBE values are similar to those determined by Verhaegen and Reniers (2004 Radiat. Res. 162 592-9).