Cell-oriented alternatives to dose, quality factor, and dose equivalent for low-level radiation.

Randomly occurring energy deposition events produced by low levels of ionizing radiation interacting with tissue deliver variable amounts of energy to sensitive target volumes within a small fraction of the tissue cell population. A model is described in which an experimentally derived function relating event size to cell response probability operates mathematically on the microdosimetric event size distribution characterizing a given irradiation and thus determines the total fractional number of responding cells; this fraction measures the effectiveness of the given radiation. Applying this cell response or hit size effectiveness function (HSEF) to different radiations and normalizing to equal numbers of responses produced by each radiation should define its radiation quality, or relative effectiveness, on a more nearly absolute basis than do the absorbed dose and dose equivalent, both of which are confounded when applied to low-level irradiations. Similar cell response probability functions calculated from different experimental data are presented.