The use of the term ‘radiosensitivity’ through history of radiation: from clarity to confusion

AbstractPurposes: The term ‘radiosensitivity’ appeared for the first time at the beginning of the 20th century, few years after the discovery of X-rays. Initially used by French and German radiologists, it illustrated the risk of radiation-induced (RI) skin reactions. From the 1950s, ‘radiosensitivity’ was progressively found to describe other features of RI response such as RI cancers or cataracts. To date, such confusion may raise legal issues and complexify the message addressed to general public. Here, through an historical review, we aimed to better understand how this confusion appeared.Methods: To support our historical review, a quantitative and qualitative wording analysis of the ‘radiosensitivity’ occurrences and its derived terms was performed with Google books, Pubmed, Web of Science™ databases, and in all the ICRP publications.Conclusions: While ‘radiosensitivity’ was historically related to RI adverse tissue events attributable to cell death, the first efforts to quantify the RI risk specifi...