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Title: Cell killing by Auger emitters located outside the nucleus
Plain: Some radioactive atoms release electrons that mostly travel less than a thousandth of a millimetre, so they should harm a cell only if they are right next to its DNA. Reports of killing when the atoms are on the cell surface or in other compartments challenge that picture.
Precise: Quantify cell killing per decay for Auger-electron emitters (I-125, In-111, Tc-99m, Ga-67) localized in the nucleus, the cytoplasm, the mitochondria and the cell membrane, and compare with the absorbed dose to the nucleus computed by cellular S-values (tabulated dose per decay between cell compartments) and track-structure codes. An answer is a ratio of observed to predicted effect per compartment, and the identification of any non-nuclear target or signalling pathway needed to explain a ratio above 1.
Settled by: Survival and DNA-damage measurements with emitters chemically confined to each compartment, with measured subcellular activity distributions and calculated nuclear dose.
Kind: well-posed
Answer type: value
References: (empty)
Literature status: open
Status note: Reviews around 2019 cite membrane and mitochondrial targeting effects that nuclear-dose calculations do not reproduce.
Posed since: (empty)