ABSTRACT
The first medical application of ionizing radiation, using X-rays, was reported in 1895. The advantages of proton radiation therapy, compared to “conventional” photon radiation therapy, were first outlined by Wilson in 1946. The idea of proton therapy was not immediately picked up at Wilson’s home institution, Harvard University, but was adopted a couple of years later by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) in California. The early patients had metastatic breast cancer and received proton irradiation of their pituitary gland for hormone suppression. Protons as well as helium beams were applied. Between 1954 and 1957, 30 patients were treated with protons. In 1955, shortly after the first proton treatments at LBL, radiation oncologists in Uppsala, Sweden, became interested in the medical use of protons. Preclinical work on proton therapy at Harvard University started in 1959. In 1973, the radiation oncology department commenced an extensive proton therapy program.
