MULTIORGAN FATAL CHRONIC COMPLICATIONS FOLLOWING RADIATION TREATMENT FOR CANCER OF THE CERVIX - RESULTS OF FIBROBLAST ASSAY

We report a case of severe chronic normal tissue injury following conv entional irradiation in a 33-year-old patient with a strong family his tory of cancer. Her cultured fibroblasts exhibited a response to low-d ose-rate irradiation similar to fibroblasts taken from a normal indivi dual. For acute irradiation her fibroblasts showed a slight increased sensitivity to single doses compared to fibroblasts from a normal indi vidual. This difference was much larger when fractionated irradiation was given. It is concluded that the hypersensitive response of this pa tient was due to the fractionated radiotherapy and not to the low-dose -rate brachytherapy. We believe that this is the first report of this form of cellular radiosensitivity which is mainly expressed in fractio nated radiotherapy. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.