Cell-Survival Data and the Irradiation Response of Some Normal Tissues

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Abstract
The determination of cell-survival curves in vitro (Puck and Marcus, 1956) and in vivo (Hewitt and Wilson, 1959) and the impressive uniformity of their chief parameters (Morkovin and Feldman, 1960) for a wide range of cell types has led to many speculations regarding the application of cell-survival curves to the explanation of the response of tumours and other tissues to irradiation. An important virtue of cell-survival data is that they refer to and measure those cells which have not lost their reproductive integrity. They thus specify radiosensitivity much more definitely than is often the case in other looser clinical and biological uses of the term. Thus, tissues which show a great deal of cellular damage are often described as very radiosensitive whereas this observation may be simply due to such a rapid turnover of the cells that the irradiation damage to them is made manifest. Another tissue with a slow rate of cell turnover could be equally damaged by the same dose of radiation, but the injury wo...