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- Roentgen discovers xrays and creates the first xray tube in history
- Set the precedence for future use of radiation in medicine
- In the same year, Becquerel discovers spontaneous radioactivity in uranium, similar to roentgen rays
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- First written case of recurrent breast cancer being treated by medical student Emil Grubbe using xrays
- First session was on Jan 29 1896
- Introduced the concept of fractioned radiotherapy
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- Marie Curie isolates radium and polonium from uranium
- Marie and Pierre Curie suggests using isotopes for cancer treatment
- Introduction of Brachytherapy !
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- Margareth A Cleaves in New York
- Gynecological brachytherapy used on a patient with uteri cancer using 700 mg radium bromide into a glass tube
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- Robert Abbe from St. Luke Memorial Hospital performed the first radium implant after excision of tumor
- Planted radium capsules in celluloid tubes into the tumor bed
- Pioneered the Afterloading Technique still used in radiotherapy today
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- Radium is very finite
- Only makes up one part per million of uranium (some sources show 1:3,000,000)
- Biophysicists William Duane cultivate and perfect Radon by harvesting gas from radium sulfate solutions
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- Urologist Benjamin Barringer from Memorial Hospital used radon bearing needles to treat prostate cancer
- Physicist Gioacchina Failla from Memorial's hospital discovered that unfiltered beta particles was causing damage in surrounding tissues
- Failla creates a gold encasing for radon which filtered out beta particles and still allowed 80% of therapeutic gamma rays through
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- Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie used her parent's previous workings and discovered that atoms can be transformed into new atoms
- Discovery of artificial radionuclides
- Over 1000 types of artificial radionuclides today
- ex: Cesium-137, Iodine 131
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- 1950 -1960s
- Coblat-60, gold-198, tantalum-182 and cesium-137 are introduced and essentially replace radium-226
- Iridium 192 replace the previous sources and became the most commonly used source of brachytherapy
- First clinical use of Iridium-192 by Ulrich Henschke at the Memoral Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Henschke also developed the afterloading technique at this time, reducing radiation exposure to staff
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Capa and Cerraphasa RAdiation Oncology Department of Istanbul University
- HDR is used for more powerful radioactive sources for a shorter period of time
- LDR is used for less powerful radioactive sources but left in for longer periods of time
- Cathetron Device (HDR): radionuclide administered via a catheter guided by an afterloader device directly to the tumor
- Curietron can be used for both HDR and LDR -
- Several Doctors experiment with early seed placement
- Results showed that the quality seed placement early in cancer development were important
- Resulted in the use of ultrasound guided seed placement for a more accurate placement
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- With the rise of technology and medicine, brachytherapy continues to undergo developments
- Transition to 3d imaging
- IMRT (inverse planning)
- Dose optimization