The inherited basis of human radiosensitivity

Certain individuals cannot tolerate 'conventional' doses of radiation thera py. This is known to be true of patients with ataxia-telangiectasia and lig ase IV deficiency. Although in vitro testing may not correlate completely w ith clinical radiosensitivity, fibroblasts and lymphoblasts from patients,v ith both of these disorders have been clearly shown to be radiosensitive. U sing a colony survival assay (CSA) to test lymphoblastoid cells after irrad iation with 1 Gy, a variety of other genetic disorders have been identified as strong candidates for clinical radiosensitivity. such as Nijmegen break age syndrome, Mrel 1 deficiency, and Fanconi's anemia. These data are prese nted and considered as a starting-point for the inherited basis of human ra diosensitivity.