Background: In order to investigate the combination effect of anticancer drugs and X-ray irradiation on neurotoxic side-effects (neurotoxicity), a method that provides homogeneously X-ray-irradiated cells was newly established. Materials and Methods: PC12 cell suspension was irradiated by X-ray (0.5 Gy) in serum-supplemented medium, immediately inoculated into 96-microwell plates and incubated overnight. The medium was replaced with fresh serum-depleted medium containing 50 ng/ml nerve growth factor to induce differentiation toward nerve-like cells with characteristic neurites according to the overlay method without changing the medium. The differentiated cells were treated by anticancer drugs as well as antioxidants, oxaliplatin or bortezomib, and the viable cell number was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5diphenyltetrazolium bromide method. Results: Antioxidants and anticancer drugs were cytotoxic to differentiating PC12 cells. Combination of anticancer drugs and X-ray irradiation slightly reduced cell viability. Conclusion: The present 'population irradiation method' may be useful for the investigation of the combination effect of X-ray irradiation and any pharmaceutical drug. X-Rays are used for many purposes in various fields. This includes the visualization of the distribution and therapeutic effects of drugs by X-ray computed tomography (1); the assessment of chemical element changes by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (2); the analysis of crystal structure by Xray diffraction (3); the analysis of oral mucosal distribution of trace metal elements by X-ray fluorescence with synchrotron radiation and particle-induced X-ray emission, and the estimation of chemical states of elements by X-ray absorption fine-structure analysis (4); the visual inspection of passenger baggage in airports by X-ray images (5); and therapeutic applications in medicine (6). Radiation, such as X-rays, and drugs, are reported to exert dose-dependent biphasic effects (7). X-Ray irradiation has been reported to stimulate the production of reactive oxygen-species such as superoxide and nitrite (8, 9), the secretion of Fas ligand (10), the accumulation of cells in the G 2 +M phase in the cell cycle (11), and the shortening of telomeres (12). On the other hand, at lower doses of X-irradiation, beneficial effects (known as hormesis) can be induced. For example, Xirradiation at 10 mGy (but not 50 or 100 mGy) reduced the frequency of micronucleated cells in human lymphocytes to below the spontaneous level (13). Recently, we discovered that among anticancer drugs, platinum preparations (cisplatin, carboplatin, oxaliplatin) and proteasome inhibitor bortezomib showed potent cytotoxicity not only against normal oral keratinocytes (14) but also against PC12 nerve-like cells (Iijima et al., unpublished data). The neurotoxicity of anticancer agents and X-ray irradiation is a recent research topic in today's aging society. In the present study, we investigated whether cytotoxic doses of X-ray irradiation further augment neurotoxicity...