Abstract: Patients treated with radiotherapy (RT) might experience a large variation in normal tissues. Severe radiation damage in a minority of patients limits the doses that might be safe given to the majority. The possibility of predicting such radiation-induced damage would provide a better treatment schedule for the patients. Several predictive tests in peripheral blood lymphocytes such as initial DNA damage, radiation-induced apoptosis and genetic variation have been proposed to know the individual sensitivity of patients to the radiotherapy schedules. This study aimed to summarize the main studies regarding to this field.

Key words: Peripheral blood lymphocytes, Normal tissue damage, Radiosensitivity, Radiotherapy