New paper in Physics in Medicine & Biology

The research paper “Assessment of the In Vitro Radiosensitivity of Pancreatic Cancer Cell Lines Using Two Cell Survival Models” is now available in Phys Med Biol. The study investigated the in vitro response of pancreatic cancer cell lines to radiation therapy by comparing two cell survival models: the widely used Linear Quadratic (LQ) model and a nonlinear Log-Logistic (LL) regression model. While the LQ model remains a robust clinical tool for assessing cellular radiosensitivity, its susceptibility to experimental heterogeneity calls for caution when interpreting the α/β ratio. In contrast, the LL model demonstrated significantly lower heterogeneity and a superior ability to distinguish radiosensitivity differences between the tumour cell lines investigated.
The results underscore the need for a greater standardization of clonogenic assay protocols, encompassing both experimental setups and comprehensive reporting standards to improve reproducibility, while the derived radiosensitivity parameters set a benchmark enabling meaningful comparisons across independent studies. Ultimately, these findings have the potential to support the development of more accurate predictive models for radiation therapy response and contribute to the optimization of more personalized treatment strategies for pancreatic cancer patients. Finally, establishes a robust framework adaptable to other cancer types.