2.

MINIMUM ESSENTIAL SYLLABUS FOR RADIOBIOLOGY

2.1. Introduction
This is expected to comprise 1 week of teaching of around 30 hours
including discussion periods, practical sessions, tutorials, and revision using
distance-learning and other texts in the students own time.

2.2. Physics and chemistry of radiation interactions with matter
2.2.1. Sources of ionizing radiation
Ionizing radiations may be emitted in the decay process of unstable nuclei or
by de-excitation of atoms and their nuclei in nuclear reactors, X ray
machines, cyclotrons and other devices.
During radioactive decay gamma rays are often produced alongside other
types of radiation such as or rays. When a nucleus emits an or
particle, the daughter nucleus is sometimes left in an excited state which,
after de-excitation, returns to a lower energy level by emitting a ray in
much the same way that an atomic electron can jump to a lower energy level
by emitting visible light. Both natural background radiation from cosmic and
terrestrial sources, and man-made radiations, cause ionization of atoms or
molecules, which may cause injury to cells.
Living organisms are continuously exposed to ionizing radiations from
natural radiation. In addition, exposures occur as a result of human activities
and medical practices. Radiations are broadly categorized into natural and
man-made sources (Table 2.1). More than 90 % of radiation exposure to man
occurs from natural sources e.g. cosmic rays, and terrestrial sources that
comes from radionuclides in the earths crust, air, food and water and the
human body itself. Man-made radiation exposure to populations occurs
mainly from medical uses of radiation and radioisotopes in health care,
occupational sources in the generation of electricity from nuclear power
reactors, industrial uses of nuclear techniques, and in the past from nuclear
weapons testing. Use of ionizing radiation in medical diagnosis and therapy
is widespread and constantly increasing due to useful newer health care
applications. It is widely accepted that diagnostic radiation exposures can be
significantly reduced by adequate safety measures and optimization of
nuclear-based procedures and practices.



2.2.2. Types of ionizing radiation
Ionizing radiation may be divided into directly and indirectly ionizing for the
understanding of biological effects. Most of the particulate types of radiation
are directly ionizing i.e. individual particles with adequate kinetic energy can
directly disrupt the atomic structure of the absorbing medium through which
they pass producing chemical and biological damage to molecules. In
contrast, electromagnetic radiations, namely, X and rays, are indirectly
ionizing because they do not produce chemical and biological damage
themselves but produce secondary electrons (charged particles) after energy
absorption in the material.

Fig. 2.1
Schematic of the
electromagnetic
spectrum (Hall and
Giaccia, 2006).










2.2.2.1. Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation includes radiowaves, microwaves, visible light,
ultra violet light, X rays and rays (Figure 2.1). These waves are essentially
characterized by their energy which varies inversely with the wavelength.
They can be thought of as moving packets of energy (quanta) and in this
form are called photons. The quantum of energy associated with the waves
progressively increases from radiowaves with least energy to X and with
highest energy, and X and ray photons have the ability to eject an electron
from its orbit in an atom (are ionizing radiations). Ionization is the process of
removing one or more electrons from atoms by the incident radiation leaving
behind electrically charged particles (an electron and a positively charged
ion) which may subsequently produce significant biological effects in the
irradiated material (Figure 2.2). The ionized or excited atom or molecule may
either fragment producing free radicals or return to the parent state. If the
energy transferred by ionizing radiation to the atom is insufficient to eject
orbital electrons, the electrons may be raised from lower to higher orbitals
and the atom is said to be excited. Other radiations of the electromagnetic
spectrum fall short of the energy required to remove an electron from an
atom and they are called non-ionizing radiations. Non-ionizing radiations are
generally considered harmless to biological tissues at levels below those that
cause heating effects, although there remain controversies in this area and
research is ongoing. Cellular phones, radar, infrared, radiowaves,
microwaves, visible light, ultrasound fall into this category.
Because of the longer wavelengths and, therefore, smaller energy per quanta,
they are not known to cause significant chemical changes in atoms or
molecules of the medium. However, the exact demarcation between ionizing
and non-ionizing radiation parts of the spectrum is somewhat arbitrary
because some molecules can be ionized with very little energy, and far-UV
radiation can behave similarly to X and rays.

Fig. 2.2 Direct versus
indirect action (Hall and
Giaccia, 2006).









2.2.2.2. Interactions of electromagnetic radiation
When electromagnetic radiation travels through matter, it can be transmitted
without transferring any energy or its intensity may be reduced by interaction
with the traversed material. The attenuation occurs due to individual photon
interactions with the atoms encountered. Biological effects arise when
electromagnetic radiations, mainly X rays or rays, are either scattered or
absorbed by the atoms of tissues/organs. Quantum theory considers
electromagnetic radiation as streams of packets/bundles of energy called
photons.
The energy of a photon of electromagnetic radiation is given by Plancks
equation, where
E = h = hc/
E is the energy of the photon, h is Plancks constant, and is the frequency
of the photon. The energy of a photon is directly related to its frequency and
inversely to wavelength, . Wave velocity is obtained by the product of
frequency and wavelenth, c = , where c is the velocity of light.
Biological effects of radiation arise when ionizing radiation interacts with an
organism/tissue and leaves some energy behind. The process by which
electromagnetic photons are absorbed in matter depends on their energy and
the atomic number of the absorbing material.
Photons passing through matter transfer their energy through the following
three main processes: photoelectric absorption, Compton scattering, and pair
production (Figure 2.3).

2.2.2.3. Photoelectric absorption
In photoelectric absorption, the photon interacts with a bound inner shell
electron in the atom of the absorbing medium and transfers its entire energy
to the electron ejecting it from the occupied atomic shell. The incident
photon disappears and the energy transferred is used to overcome the binding
energy of the electron and the remainder appears as kinetic energy of the
resulting photoelectron. Thus, the kinetic energy of the ejected photoelectron
equals the energy of the incident photon minus the binding energy of the
electron.
Kinetic Energy (electron) = h E b
where h is the energy of incident photon, and Eb is the binding energy of
the electron. The ejected photoelectron travels a certain distance within the
absorber and loses its energy through secondary ionizations. In this way, the
entire photon energy of the incident photon is deposited in the tissue
irradiated. As a result, an atom that participated in photoelectric interaction is
left ionized. The vacancy created due to ejection of the electron is instantly
filled by an electron from an outer orbital of the same atom, emitting the
balance of energy as a photon between the respective orbits with
characteristic low energy.
The photoelectric effect is the dominant energy transfer mechanism for X
and ray photons having energies below 50 keV in biological tissues, but it
is much less important at higher energies. (An electron volt is a measure of
energy which is the kinetic energy gained by an electron passing through a
potential difference of one volt. 1 eV = 1.602 x 10 19 Joules).

2.2.2.4. Compton scattering
The process of energy deposition called the Compton Effect occurs when the
incident photon interacts with the outer orbital electron whose binding
energy is very low compared with that of the incident photon. In this
interaction, the incident photon transfers energy to an atomic electron
causing its ejection from the atom. The photon is scattered with the
remainder of the original energy in a different direction to that of the incident
photon. Compton scatter thus causes ionization of the absorbing atom due to
loss of an electron. The scattered electron (a secondary charged particle)
travels some distance in matter and eventually loses energy by further
ionization and excitation events to become part of the material. The
probability of
Compton scattering decreases with increasing photon energy. It is the
principal absorption mechanism for X and rays in the intermediate energy
range of 100 keV to 10 MeV. This range is in the therapeutic radiation range,
and it also forms most of the radiation present in a nuclear explosion.

2.2.2.5. Pair duction
When a photon of high energy ( >1.02 MeV) interacts with atoms of the
medium, the incident photon can be spontaneously converted into the mass
of an electron and positron pair by interaction of the Coulomb force in the
vicinity of the nucleus. The oppositedly charged particles are emitted in
opposite directions to each other and cause damage as secondary charge
particles. A positron is the anti-matter equivalent of an electron and it has the
same mass as an electron, but it has a positive charge equal in strength to the
negative charge of an electron. The energy of the interacting photon in excess
of the equivalent rest mass of the two particles (1.02 MeV) appears as the
kinetic energy of the pair and the recoil nucleus. The positron has a very
short lifetime and, at the end of its range, it combines with a free electron.
The entire mass of these two particles is then converted into two photons
each of 0.51 MeV