2015年 · 第35卷第01期

From May 11th to 15th, 2014, the 2nd Global Chinese Radiation Research Conference was held in Suzhou. More than 300 Chinese experts from home and abroad, as well as many international authoritative radiation medicine experts from the United States and Japan, attended the meeting. This conference has effectively promoted the exchange and cooperation of radiation research and related disciplines. A group of prestigious experts in the field of radiation research made conference presentations, keynote presentations or invitation presentations in conjunction with the latest advances in international radiation research. The theme of the conference is: Challenges and Opportunities in Radiation Research. The conference has set up nine branches, including radiation biology, radiation chemistry, radiation diagnosis, radiation therapy, radiation protection, radiation physics, radiation technology, radiation and interdisciplinary science, and radiation environment. The report covers the basic theories of radiobiology, new methods of radiation protection, new technologies of radiation diagnosis, new advances in radiotherapy, new achievements in environmental radiochemistry, and the integration and innovation of radiation research and interdisciplinary disciplines.

According to the classical theory of radiation biology, the main target of ionizing radiation damage is believed to be the DNA in the cell nucleus. However, the discovery of so-called non-target effects, such as radiation-induced genomic instability in the progeny of cells survived from irradiation and bystander effects on cells not directly exposed to radiation, has challenged the central dogma of radiation biology in recent years^[1,2,3]. Previous studies have demonstrated that extranuclear target also plays an important role in mediating the genotoxicity of ionizing radiation^[4], but the details of the cytoplasmic effects on genomic instability in hit cells are largely unexploited, mainly due to the technical difficulties in selectively targeting the cytoplasm without affecting the nucleus. The charged particle microbeam, which can selectively target the cytoplasm of individual cells with a defined number of α particles, provides a useful tool to investigate the incidence and mechanism of genomic instability and other chromosomal damages induced by extranuclear irradiation. By using this delicacy facility, it has been shown that irradiation targeting cytoplasma may result in mitochondrial fragmentation and attenuated respiratory chain function in irradiated human small airway epithelial (SAE) cells, indicating a potential role of mitochondria in mediating radiation damages in mammalian cells^[4]．

Heavy iron radiation offers significant advantages for the treatment of deep-seated local tumors compared to conventional megavolt photon therapy. For a plethora of malignancies, current radiotherapy using photons or protons yields marginal benefits in local control and survival. In the last decade, heavy-ion radiotherapy facilities have slowly been constructed in Europe and Asia, demonstrating favorable results for many of the malignancies for which conventional radiotherapy yields poor results. However, for a radiobiological perspective, the mechanism whereby heavy ions work in overcoming radio-resistance and the mechanism whereby radiotherapy combined with systemic therapies extends local control and survival are not yet fully understood. Space radiation, comprised of energetic protons and heavy nuclei, has been shown to cause distinct biological damage compared to radiation on earth, leading to large uncertainties in the projection of cancer and other health risks, and obscuring the evaluation of the effectiveness of possible countermeasures. Research in the field of biological effects of heavy charged particles is needed for both heavy-ion therapy and protection from the exposure to galactic cosmic radiation in long-term manned space missions. This article reviews the progress in the research of the biological effects of heavy-ion radiation in space exploration and radiotherapy, and the open questions that remain to be addressed.

At present, there is still a lack of effective, especially non-invasive treatment in the field of prevention and treatment of diabetes mellitus and diabetic cardiovascular complications. The biological effects of low dose radiation (LDR), including excitatory effects and adaptive responses, have been reported by many scholars. The adaptive response mediated by low-dose radiation can not only protect the body from damage after continuous high-dose radiation, but also cross-defend against oxidative stress damage caused by non-ionizing radiation. It is known that oxidative stress injury plays an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus and its comorbidities. Early studies have shown that low-dose radiation has a significant protective effect on diabetes caused by drug-induced impairment of pancreatic islet function. It has recently been found that low-dose radiation has a significant preventive effect on streptozotocin-mediated chronic diabetic comorbidities associated with type 1 diabetes, including diabetic nephropathy, diabetic cardiomyopathy and diabetic chronic skin lesion. Not only that, low-dose radiation also has an obvious role in promoting and improving skin repair for diabetic skin damage. The mechanism is closely related to the fact that low-dose radiation can increase the level of endogenous antagonistic oxidants and may promote the mobilization of stem cells. Low-dose radiation can be an exciting and non-invasive new medical strategy to solve this problem in patients with diabetic nephropathy and renal insufficiency who do not work with conventional medication.

Thoracic radiotherapy has been demonstrated in a number of clinical studies that can reduce the local recurrence rate and improve the long-term survival rate in limited-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients and thus is an indispensable part in the comprehensive treatment of SCLC^[1,2]However, many controversies have existed for a long time in the implementation of thoracic radiotherapy (TRT), the target volumes for radiation is one of them^[3]．

The application of nuclear and radiation technology is a double-edged sword. While it brings welfare to mankind, radiation accidents caused by improper application or poor management also occur from time to time, which brings certain social impact. On May 7, 2014, an incident occurred in Nanjing Chemical Industry Park¹⁹²Ir radioactive source loss accident, resulting in acute radiation sickness and local radiation injury in one person, and accidental irradiation in many people. This paper reviews and summarizes the on-site sanitary emergency treatment of the accident.

From October 30th to November 1st, 2014, the inaugural meeting of the 9th editorial board of Chinese Journal of Radiation Medicine and Protection and the seminar on radiation medicine publication were held in Xiamen. The meeting invited Academician Cheng Tianmin, assistant to president Wang Jing and consultant of the editorial board of Chinese Medical Association Magazine, and more than 100 representatives from 26 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions and Taiwan Province attended the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Editor-in-Chief Su Xu, and was divided into three links: opening ceremony, editorial report and radiation medicine publication seminar.

The total citation frequency (the total number of citations in the current year of all papers published since its inception) reflects the objective influence of the journal. In 2014, the total citation frequency of Chinese Journal of Radiation Medicine and Protection was 783 times; Since 2011, the total citation frequency of this journal has fluctuated between 754 and 833. In each year, taking the author as the investigation object, the total number of citation frequencies is counted, and the cumulative results of different articles of the same author are obtained, thus reflecting the attention of a professional. The highly cited authors whose papers are cited more than 5 times in each year are defined as highly cited authors, and their distribution in different fields is as follows.