Enhancing low-dose risk assessment using mechanistic mathematical models of radiation effects
Mechanistic mathematical modeling of ionizing radiation (IR) effects has a long history spanning
several decades. Models that mathematically represent current knowledge and hypotheses about how
radiation damages cells and organs, leading to deleterious outcomes such as carcinogenesis, are
particularly useful for estimating radiation risks at doses that are relevant for radiation
protection, but are too low to provide a strong ‘signal-to-noise ratio’ in epidemiological or
experimental studies with realistic sample sizes. Here, I discuss examples of models in several
relevant areas, including radionuclide biokinetics, non-targeted IR effects, DNA double-strand break
(DSB) rejoining and radiation carcinogenesis. I do not provide a detailed review of the vast
modeling literature in these fields, but focus on concepts that we have implemented, such as using
continuous probability distributions of exponential rates to model radionuclide biokinetics and DSB
rejoining, and combining sho...
Source: Journal of Radiological Protection - Category: Physics Authors: Igor Shuryak Source Type: research