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Other Forms of Radiation Detected
Roentgen was studying cathode rays using a gas discharge tube. He detected radiation outside of the tube. -
Radiotherapy First Used
Radiation therapy was used for the first time on an advanced breast cancer patient. -
Therapeutic Irradiation
The founder of radiotherapy, Leopold Freund, began his well-documented first therapeutic irradiation on November 24, 1896 -
Swedish Doctors
Swedish Doctors started treating several patients for neck and head cancer using radiotherapy. -
Nobel Prize
In 1901 Roentgen received the first Nobel Prize awarded in physics. Radiation therapy began with radium and with relatively low-voltage diagnostic machines. -
Period: to
Still used to this Day
People still use Radiation therapy til' this day. -
First X-Ray
Just six years after German physicist Wilhelm Rontgen announced his discovery of "x-radiation" (x rays) machines for use in treating cancer -
First Textbook
Leopold Freund wrote the first textbook of radiotherapy in 1903 -
Becoming Commercially Available
Radiation therapy devices became commercially available -
Benefactor provides support for radiation
Scientist and mining engineer James Douglas, whose daughter died of breast cancer, giver the first of several large financial donations to Memorial Hospital -
New Method
An Austrian doctor figured out it was better to give a less dosages and more treatments rather than one large treatment. This method was called fractionated radiotherapy. -
Pioneer of medical physics joins Memorial Hospital
Physicist Gioacchino Filla is hired as the first director of Medical physics (then the first Radium Department) at memorial Hospital -
Memorial Hospital acquires large gifts of radium
James Douglas Donates 3.75 grams of radium to Memorial Hospital for use in radiaton therapy -
The Recovery
The recovery in the field of radiotherapy and radiation oncology started in Austria in the early sixties. Eleven radiotherapy centers have been established since that time, and an independent society for radio-oncology, radio biology, and medical radio physics was founded in 1984. -
Special Clinic Specialty
Finally, in March 1994, radiotherapy-radio oncology became a separate clinical specialty.
