THE COMBINED EFFECTS OF HIGH-ENERGY SHOCK-WAVES AND IONIZING-RADIATION ON A HUMAN BLADDER-CANCER CELL-LINE

The effects of high-energy shock waves (HESW) generated by an experime ntal Siemens lithotripter in combination with Cs-137 gamma-rays were e xamined in vitro. Proliferation after treatment of immobilised pellets of either single cells or multicellular spheroids of the bladder canc er cell line RT4 was determined using colony-forming assays and cell c ycle analysis, Surviving and cell cycle fractions were calculated for each shock wave and radiation application mode separately, and for seq uential combination in different successions for the purpose of charac terizing the interaction of both treatment modalities, Combination of HESW and ionising radiation turned out to act additively or slightly s upra-additively on both biologic models. Copyright (C) 1996 World Fede ration for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology