Radiation Therapy, 1903 – Radiotherapy and Ray Treatment

Radiation therapy (or radiotherapy) uses ionising radiation to destroy cancer cells by damaging their DNA, the cells’ genetic material.

Ionising radiation refers to energy capable of removing electrons from atoms or molecules, including electromagnetic waves (such as X-rays) or subatomic particles (such as protons) delivered in beams.

Radiation can damage both normal and cancer cells. Rapidly growing cancer cells, however, are generally more sensitive. Radiotherapy may damage DNA directly or produce charged particles or free radicals that can damage DNA.

Radiation can be delivered by a machine (external radiotherapy), or through brachytherapy, using radioactive material placed close to cancer cells in the body. Systemic radiation therapy involves substances that are swallowed or injected, including:

• Substances attached to antibodies that travel to cancer cells; or 
• Substances such as radioactive iodine 

The history of radiation discoveries contains several important milestones. For example:

• French scientist Henri Becquerel discovered uranium’s radioactivity in 1896. 
• About a year earlier, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen accidentally discovered X-rays while experimenting with electrical discharge tubes. 
• In 1898, physicists Marie and Pierre Curie discovered two new radioactive elements, polonium and radium. 
• In his 1903 Nobel lecture, Becquerel suggested that radium could be used to treat cancer. 
• In the same year (1903), German surgeon Georg Perthes advanced the use of X-rays in treating breast and skin cancer.
• During the 1920s and 1930s, French researchers Claudius Regaud and Henri Coutard discovered that giving radiation in fractionated doses (for example, smaller daily doses rather than a single large dose) could destroy tumours while causing less damage to nearby healthy tissue.

Giving multiple doses also makes cancer cells more likely to be exposed at different stages of the cell-division cycle, increasing their vulnerability.

Today, computers play an important role in visualising tumour location, aligning patients during treatment and calculating radiation doses.

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Additional Information: The Origin and Meaning of “Şua Treatment”

Older generations may have called radiotherapy “şua treatment”. This has historical and linguistic roots, directly reflecting the concepts and language of the period. “Şua” comes from Arabic and means “ray”. The rays used in radiotherapy kill cancer cells or slow their growth, which is why this treatment was historically called “şua treatment”.

The Evolution of Language and Medical Terms

Language changes and develops over time, as do many medical terms and concepts. The use of names such as şua treatment, radiation therapy or radiotherapy reflects the medical knowledge, technology and language of the period.

Article image caption: A photograph from 1957 of the first patient treated with linear-accelerator radiotherapy for retinoblastoma, a cancer of the retina, the eye’s light-sensing tissue. One eye was successfully treated.

Historical figures mentioned: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845–1923), Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852–1908), Pierre Curie (1859–1906), Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867–1934), Georg Clemens Perthes (1869–1927), Claudius Regaud (1870–1940), Henri Coutard (1876–1950)

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