Week 9 - Stochastic Effects & Late Tissue Reactions Flashcards
What are late effects?
Consequences of radiation exposure that appear months or years after the exposure.
What are the two types of late tissue effects?
Stochastic or Tissue reactions
What are Stochastic effects also known as?
Probabilistic effects
What are stochastic effects?
Mutational or randomly occurring biologic changes that occur months or years after high level and possibly low level of radiation exposure
What are examples of Stochastic effects?
Cancer and genetic effects
What is the relationship between stochastic effects and disease incidence?
Directly proportional - disease incidence increases proportionally with dose
What is relationship between severity of disease and dose?
They’re independent of each other - severity is not dose dependent
What is the threshold of Effects?
No threshold
What are examples of late biologic damage?
- Cataracts (late tissue reaction)
- Leukemia (stochastic)
- Genetic mutations (stochastic)
What is epidemiology?
A science that deals with the incidence, distribution and control of disease in a population
What do epidemiological studies consist of?
Observations and statistical analysis of data, such as the incidence of disease within groups of people
What studies are included in epidemiologic studies?
The risk of radiation- induced cancer
What are the incident rates at which irradiation related malignancies occur determined by?
Comparing the natural incidence of cancer occurring in a human population with the incidence of cancer occurring in an irradiated population
What are determined from the epidemiologic studies?
Risk factors for the general human population
What is the significance of epidemiologic studies to radiobiologists?
They use the information from the studies to formulate dose-response estimates to predict the risk of cancer in human populations
What is another term for Carcinogenesis?
Tumorigenesis
What is carcinogenesis?
The formation of cancer
What is the most significant late stochastic effect?
Cancer
What is the occurrence of cancer and the threshold?
Random occurrence that does not have a threshold
Is the severity of cancer dose related?
No
How is a radiation dose-response relationship demonstrated?
Graphically through a curve
What does a radiation dose-response graph map?
The observed effects of radiation exposure in relation to the dose of radiation received
What is represented on the horizontal axis of the graph?
Dose received
What is represented by the vertical axis of the graph?
Biological effects observed
What is a general rule of the DR relationship?
As radiation dose escalated so do most effects
What are the DR relationship graphs used for?
To predict the risk of occurrence of malignancies in human populations that have been exposed to low levels of ionizing radiation
How are the observed effects of radiation demonstrated?
By the incidence of a disease or the severity of an effect
What are the two types of DR curves?
Linear and non-linear
What are the two types of threshold records in a DR curve?
Threshold or non-threshold
What is a Sigmoid DR curve?
An S shaped curve (non-linear)
What are Sigmoid curves generally used for?
In radiation therapy to demonstrate high-dose cellular response
What is a threshold?
A point at which a response or reaction to an increasing stimulation first occurs
How does threshold apply to radiation?
It means that below a certain radiation level or dose, no biological effects are observed
When would biological effects begin with a threshold relationship?
Only when the threshold or dose level is reached
What is non-threshold as it pertains to radiation?
Indicates that the radiation absorbed dose of any magnitude has the capability of producing biological effects
For the linear non-threshold curve, what is the relationship between dose and biological effects?
Directly proportional, the severity of biological effects increase directly with the magnitude of absorbed dose
What is a general rule of nonthreshold doses?
That no radiation dose can be considered absolutely safe
What is BEIR?
Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation
What did the BEIR committee concluded in 1980?
That most stochastic and hereditary effects at low dose levels from low-LET radiation, follow a linear-quadratic non-threshold dose response curve
What did BEIR do in 1990?
Revised risk estimates to conclude that the risk of radiation exposure was about 3-4 times greater than previously projected
What type of DR curve does the BEIR committee recommend for most types of cancer?
Linear non-threshold curve
What does the LNT curve imply?
That the biological response to ionizing radiation is directly proportional to the dose received
What must radiographers never fail to employ with diagnostic imaging?
Aggressive radiation safety measures since it follows an LNT curve and all radiation exposure levels possess the potential to cause biological damage
What does the BEIR committee believe the LQNT model is more accurate to reflect?
The stochastic and genetic effects at low-dose levels from low-LET radiation
What effects are presumed to follow the LQNT curve?
Leukemia, breast cancer and heritable damage
What acute reactions to radiation exposure are demonstrated through a linear threshold dose-response curve?
Skin erythema and hematological depressions
Why are Sigmoid curves best used for radiation therapy?
They demonstrate high-dose cellular responses to radiation absorbed within specific locations, such as skin, lens of the eye and blood cells