SUMMARY

Modern radiotherapy techniques are increasingly focused on using heavy particles for the treatment of tumors by making use of the higher relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of high linear energy transfer (LET) particles, including proton therapy in the United States and carbon ion therapy in Japan and Germany. Recent advances in the understanding of cellular DNA have enabled a more clear understanding of how DNA is organized into smaller chromatin domains and chromosomal regions during various cell cycles, allowing for more accurate models to be developed that incorporate the particle track structure to better approximate cell survival. The purpose of the presented research is to improve on the historically accepted radiobiological models through the application of a Monte Carlo simulation of radiation tracks passing through a cell nucleus modeled with the up-to-date subnuclear structures.