Radiation Therapy

Radiation Therapy

Technology advancements in radiation therapy have allowed treatment to be tailored to a patient's tumor type, size, and location to minimize the risk of damage to healthy tissue, improve survival, and minimize potentially serious side effects.

While radiologists once drew up treatment plans with a wax pencil on X-ray films, they now construct intricate, computerized treatment plans based on 3-D images of the tumor and can vary both the shape and intensity of radiation beams. One of the earliest radiation techniques, brachytherapy, now offers effective treatment for prostate, cervical and other tumors by directly implanting small radioactive sources temporarily or permanently into tumors via remote-operated equipment.
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1945

Radiation cures some patients with Hodgkin lymphoma

Radiation cures some patients with Hodgkin lymphoma

Early in the 20th century, doctors find that use of radiation therapy can cure some patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, one of two major classes of lymphomas. When studies show that radiating larger parts of the body improves cure rates, physicians begin increasing the size of the radiation fields during therapy. In later decades, however, the long-term effects of radiation to the chest (including cardiovascular disease and second cancers) are recognized, and efforts are taken to reduce radiation exposure to healthy tissue.

More Information: 

Radiology 1962; 78(4): 553-561
Blood 2002; 100:1989-1996
Journal of Clinical Oncology 202; 20(8): 2101-2108

1903

First use of radiation to treat cancer

First use of radiation to treat cancer

Five years after Marie Curie's discovery of radium, doctors report the first successful of use of this radioactive element to treat cancer, in two Russian patients with skin cancer. In the following decades, radiation becomes widely used to treat many different cancers, including cervical, prostate, breast and other tumors. In these first decades, doctors use an approach known as brachytherapy, in which small pieces of radioactive material are implanted inside or next to tumors, delivering radiation to cancer cells at close range. Brachytherapy remains an essential part of cancer treatment today, but has been refined to more precisely target tumor cells while leaving healthy tissue unharmed.

More Information: 

Cancer Journal 2006; 76(10)
American Brachytherapy Society; Introduction of Brachytherapy
NCI: 250 Years of Advances Against Cancer

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