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Heavy ion carcinogenesis and human space exploration

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 8, pages 465–472 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Before the human exploration of Mars or long-duration missions on the Earth's moon, the risk of cancer and other diseases from space radiation must be accurately estimated and mitigated. Space radiation, comprised of energetic protons and heavy nuclei, has been shown to produce distinct biological damage compared with radiation on Earth, leading to large uncertainties in the projection of cancer and other health risks, and obscuring evaluation of the effectiveness of possible countermeasures. Here, we describe how research in cancer radiobiology can support human missions to Mars and other planets.

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Figure 1: Space radiation environment and shielding.
Figure 2: Uncertainties in space and terrestrial radiation exposures.
Figure 3: Chromosomal aberrations induced by heavy ions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the NASA Space Radiation Program, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) MoMa-COUNT and the US Department of Energy Low Dose Program for support of the research performed by the authors. W. Schimmerling should receive the gratitude of the whole space radiobiology community for initiating and promoting the NASA Space Radiation Health Program. We also acknowledge the commitment of ESA to initiate a European ground-based space radiobiology programme (IBER), and the great efforts and enthusiasm of O. Angerer at ESTEC for this project.

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  1. Marco Durante is at the Biophysics group at GSI, Planckstraβe 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany, and at the University Federico II, Monte S. Angelo, Via Cintia, 80126 Naples, Italy. M.Durante@gsi.de,

    Marco Durante

  2. Francis A. Cucinotta is at the NASA Space Radiation Program located at NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Texas 77058, USA. Francis.A.Cucinotta@nasa.gov,

    Francis A. Cucinotta

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ataxia telangiectasia

lung cancer

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Durante, M., Cucinotta, F. Heavy ion carcinogenesis and human space exploration. Nat Rev Cancer 8, 465–472 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc2391

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