ABSTRACT
Department of Radiation Oncology, Toronto Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Helen Steed
Department of Gynecology, Cross Cancer Institute, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
HISTORY OF RADIATION
Pierre Curie announced the discovery of radium in 1898 and the therapeutic application of radium to exposed surfaces of the body began immediately (1). The first suggestion that radium be used interstitially within the center of the cancer was proposed intriguingly by Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone (1). In 1903 he advocated that a tiny fragment of radium be sealed up in a fine glass tube and inserted into the ‘‘heart’’ of the cancer thus acting directly on the disease.
