Clinical Oncology & Radiation Therapy

Recent Advances in Radiation Therapy

The field of Radiotherapy has undergone an amazing series of developments since its inception over a century ago. The use of ionizing radiation for the treatment of cancer dates back to the late 19th century, remarkably soon after Roentgen described X-rays in 1895 and the use of brachytherapy after Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium in 1898.  These initial efforts stimulated a revolution of conceptual and technological innovations throughout the 20th century, forming the basis of the safe and effective therapies used today. This is largely the result of dedicated and inventive pioneers, whose conceptual and technological advances created an entire specialty of one early observation of “a new type of ray.” Perhaps the most important of these developments has been the paradigm of fractionated dose delivery, technologic advances in X-ray production and delivery, improvements in Medical Imaging and computer-based treatment planning, and evolving models that predict how cancers behave and how they should be approached therapeutically.  Advances in our ability to shape Radiation beams have also led to major treatment planning advances. Image-Guided Radiotherapy, Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, Stereotactic body radiation therapy for treating brain tumors are the recent advances in Radiation therapy.