The role of EGR-1 in potentially lethal damage repair (PLDR) was studied. Induction of the early response protein EGR-1 and survival after ionizing radiation of two human tumour cell lines after culturing for 48 h in serum-deprived medium was investigated. The glioblastoma cell line (Gli-6) and a lung carcinoma cell line (SW-1573) were selected as these cell lines differ considerably in the degree of PLD repair after radiation. In both cell lines induction of EGR-1 protein was observed between 30-120 min after treatment with 10 Gy in serum-deprived cultures. In cells growing in medium with normal serum no induction of EGR-1 was observed. No difference in EGR-1 expression levels between the two cell lines was detected. Linear-Quadratic analysis of the survival curves showed a much larger difference between the values of alpha after immediate and delayed plated cells of the cultures in normal serum as compared to cells cultured in serum-deprived medium. The cells cultured in serum-deprived medium showed much larger difference between the values of beta. This indicates that induction of EGR-1 is correlated with a reduction of repair of lethal lesions (PLDRalpha) and with an increase of repair of sublethal lesions (PLDRbeta).