Clinical radiobiology of proton therapy: modeling of RBE

Purpose: To better estimate relative biological effectiveness (RBE) in therapeutic proton beams by using a modeled approach, in order to improve their clinical safety and effectiveness. Introduction: Concerns exist about the 1.1 RBE used in proton therapy, since it may lead to unintentional over- and under-dosage in patients and so lead to unexpected clinical outcomes. Late reacting normal tissues (with low a/b values), might be overdosed if RBE >1.1; very radiosensitive tumors (with high a/b), might be under-dosed if RBE