Proton beam suppresses metastatic and cancer stem cell like phenotype in human lung carcinoma cells as compared to equitoxic dose of gamma radiation

The unique energy deposition profile of proton beam has made proton therapy a preferred modality over conventional radiotherapy. How does this unique energy deposition pattern translates at cellular level is largely unexplored. Here we investigated the effect of proton - and gamma - irradiation on various biological end points such as cytotoxicity, cell cycle arrest, gene expression, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and 'stemness' in human non-small cell lung carcinoma cells (A549)