Radiosensitivity of human B-lymphocytic lymphomas in vitro.

The radiosensitivity of four human B-lymphocytic lymphoma cell lines has been studied. For all lines the Do values were in the range 1.3 to 1.8 Gy. None of the survival curves had an appreciable shoulder. The extrapolation numbers varied in the range 1.0 to 1.2. Thus, the cell lines had a low capacity to accumulate sublethal damage. Furthermore, split dose experiments showed that no line had the capacity to repair sublethal damage. Taken together with earlier published experimental and clinical observations the results indicate that the use of an increased number of fractions in radiotherapy of B-lymphocytic lymphomas might be of great benefit to the patients. A schedule with an increased number of fractions will probably be as efficient in killing the tumour cells as previously used schedules but the tolerance of adjacent normal tissue will probably increase.