Determination of the survival curve of the cell irradiated with low dose rate neutrons

The effect of the radiation in tissue and cells are a theme of extreme importance and that is receiving large attention more and more now. This work purposes to evaluate the deleterious effects of the neutrons radiation at low dose rate in lineages of human cancerous cells through the analysis of survival curves. Deleterious effects due to radiation of low dose rate (3.8 mSv/hr) were observed in cells of the lineage HeLa S3. Previous studies, in lineage HN5 of tongue carcinoma, showed survive level to 0.2Sv of 80%, compatible to the value of 88,57% 0.4 Sv obtained for HeLa S3. In a close future, with the molecular biology characterization of a great number or possibly all cancer types (that will be accelerated largely with the conclusion of the human genome project), studies like this, can be much more specific, and could determine the efficiency of the neutrons or any other radiation type for each one of those types. Those data would have of great value for the medicine and they would help to plan the treatments better. (author)