MED
In the literature: open
In vivo relevance of bystander and non-targeted effects
In plain words
Cells that were never hit by radiation sometimes show damage because neighbours were hit. Whether this matters in a living body at low dose is unknown.
Precise statement
Determine whether bystander signalling, genomic instability and abscopal responses change organ-level risk at doses below 10 rad in vivo, relative to the prediction from directly hit cells alone. Required: dose range, signalling distance in tissue, and persistence. An answer is a quantified modification factor or a demonstration that it is negligible.
What would settle it
In vivo experiments with spatially restricted irradiation, such as microbeam or partial-body exposure, measuring effects in unirradiated tissue at low dose.