The combination of ionizing radiation and gene therapy has been investigated. However, there are very few reports about the combination of heavy-ion irradiation and gene therapy. To determine if the pre-exposure to low-dose heavy ion beam enhances the suppression of AdCMV-p53 on non-small lung cancer (NSLC), the cells pre-irradiated or non-irradiated were infected with 20, 40 MOl of AdCMV-p53. Survival fraction and the relative biology effect (RBE) were determined by clonogenic assay. The results showed that the proportions of p53 positive cells in 12C6+ beam induced AdCMV-p53 infected cells were more than 90%, which were significantly more than those in γ-ray induced AdCMV-p53 infected cells. The pre-exposure to low-dose 12C6+ beam significantly prevented the G0/G1 arrest and activated G2/M checkpoints. The pre-exposure to 12C6+ beam significantly improved cell to apoptosis. RBEs for the 12C6+ + AdCMV-p53 infection groups were 30%-60%, 20% -130% and 30%-70% more than those for the 12C6+-irradiated only, AdCMV-p53 infected only, and γ-irradiation induced AdCMVp53 infected groups, respectively. The data suggested that the pre-exposure to low-dose 12C6+ beam significantly promotes exogenous p53 expression in NSLC, and the suppression of AdCMV-p53 gene therapy on NSLC.