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Brachytherapy has been practised for over 100 years and was the first type of radiotherapy to be used in the treatment of cancer.

As such, the heritage of brachytherapy is unrivalled in the field of radiotherapy. Read on to find out how brachytherapy has evolved over time, or explore for yourself using the interactive timeline.

Shortly after the discovery of radioactivity by Becquerel in 1896, brachytherapy was first practised in 1901.

Pierre Curie, a French physicist, suggested to the French doctor Henri-Alexandre Danlos that a radioactive source could be inserted into a tumor. This technique was first applied as a treatment for lupus, but soon after it was also applied to cancerous tumors.  It was found that the radiation caused the tumors to shrink in size.

Alexander Graham Bell (credited with the invention of the telephone) also independently suggested the use of radiation in this way.

Following these early experiments, interest in brachytherapy grew.

Many innovations quickly followed, such as the use of seed therapy for prostate cancer and specialized applicators for cervical cancer. However, the risks of radiation exposure to operators from the manual handling of the radiation sources was soon identified.  Consequently the use of brachytherapy declined in the middle of the twentieth century.^1,2

To overcome the problem of unwanted radiation exposure, remote afterloading systems and new radioactive sources were introduced in the 1950s and 1960s.³

These new systems helped prevent occupational exposure to radiation and made the brachytherapy procedure even safer for patients and operators alike.⁴

In more recent years there has been a ‘second renaissance’ in brachytherapy technological innovations. Three dimensional (3D) imaging and computerised treatment planning systems and delivery equipment has made brachytherapy a safe and effective treatment for many types of cancer today.

References

1. American Brachytherapy Society. Available at: http://www.americanbrachytherapy.org/aboutBrachytherapy/history.cfm. Accessed 30 December 2009.
2. Aronowitz JN. Brachytherapy 2008;7:55-9.
3. Gupta VK. J Med Phys 1995; 20(2):31-8.
4. Gerbaulet A, Ash D, Meertens H. 1;3–21 In: The GEC ESTRO Handbook of Brachytherapy. Gerbaulet A, Pötter R, Mazeron J-J, Meertens H and van Limbergen E (Eds). Leuven, Belgium, ACCO. 2005.