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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Feb 16.
Published in final edited form as: Cancer J. 2009 JAN–FEB;15(1):1–6. doi: 10.1097/PPO.0b013e3181976614

Figure 1. Increasing therapeutic advantage with increasing hypofractionation.

Figure 1

The equivalent total doses if delivered in 2 Gy fractions for prostate tumor (α/β = 1.5) and normal tissue late effects (α/β = 3) are shown versus fraction size-number combinations that preserve similar late effect levels, as would be predicted by the linear quadratic model. A reduction in total dose is required with increasing hypofractionation to maintain similar predicted late effects. The difference between the solid lines and dotted extensions on the right indicate in non-quantitative fashion a potential, over-prediction of biological effect by the linear quadratic model for very large fraction sizes.