A simple track structure model of ion beam radiotherapy

A simple radiotherapy ion beam calculation based on the cellular track structure model, using in vitro cell survival parameters fitted from recent experimental data, is presented. The calculation represents a single-fraction ion exposure (roughly corresponding to a 2 Gy fraction of mega-volt X-rays) and exploits concepts used in clinical radiotherapy, such as entrance, or 'skin' ion dose. The depth distribution of cells surviving their irradiation by a beam of 385 MeV amu-1 carbon ions is calculated over the range of the stopping ions, as a sequence of track-segments, in the continuous slowing-down approximation. An interpretation of the 'clinical relative biological effectiveness' concept is suggested. (authors)