Genes or radiation dose: Impact on radiation sensitivity?

Neuruppin, 18 February 2025

How sensitive is the human body to radiation? Do our genes play a key role here? The journal Radiation Research has published a study exploring these questions. Luca Caramenti, statistician at the MHB Institute of Biostatistics and Registry Research, was in charge of the investigation into genetic components of radiation damage; other parties involved were the  Universitätsklinikum Ruppin-Brandenburg (ukrb) in Neuruppin, the clinical center in Kielce/Poland and Stockholm University.

About 100 patients from both hospitals were recruited for the study who had received two subsequent radiotherapies respectively for various tumor diseases during the past decades. Side effects of radiation therapies between patients as well as for individual patients were statistically compared using variance component models.

As expected, no evidence was found to suggest a relevant genetic component. Dr. André Buchali, senior physician at the ukrb radiotherapy and radio-oncology department and attending doctor for some of the study participants, concludes: “Despite the limited number of test subjects, findings from this elegant study design indicate that a personalized de-escalation of radiotherapy is not applicable in the daily treatment of cancer patients with congenital elevated radiosensitivity.”

To summarize, the study appears to underline the significance of radiation dose as the major factor for radiosensitivity, whereas genetic factors seem to play a minor role.

Caramenti L, Wołowiec P, Kędzierawski P, Góźdź S, Buchali A, Hauptmann M, Wojcik A. Individual Sensitivity for Radiotherapy-related Adverse Tissue Reactions in Patients Treated Twice for Metachronous Cancers. Radiat Res. 2025 Jan 14. doi: 10.1667/RADE-24-00226.1. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39805311.