Introduction of Radiation therapy and dosimeter

Introduction:
Cancer is a tumor, or an overgrowth of abnormal cells. The
se cells grow by multiplying or dividing to rapidly make new tumor cells. Radiat
ion Therapy (irradiation or radiotherapy) is the use of high energy Radiations,
primarily x-rays, to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy kills cancer cells by
damaging their DNA and stop their ability to grow and reproduce. Normal cells ca
n also be affected by radiation, but normal cells tend to be able to recover fro
m radiation damage.
When radiation treatments are given for cancer, special care is taken to spare a
s much normal tissue as possible from radiation exposure. The radiation dose is
carefully measured and aimed at the tumor to kill as many cancer cells with as l
ittle damage to normal tissue as possible.
Radiation Therapy can be used with surgery, chemotherapy and/or biologic
therapy to cure, control or relieve symptoms in patients with cancer. [1]
History of radiation therapy:
Wilhelm Rntgen, a German physic
s professor, discovered x-rays in 1896. He gave a lecture called "Concerning a N
ew Type of Ray", which caused a revolution in the scientific community. Just wee
ks later, Emil Grubb, a student doctor in Chicago, became the first person to use
of radiation to treat cancer. And three years later, two Swedish doctors used r
adiotherapy to cure several cases of head and neck cancer. In 1901, Rntgen was aw
arded the Nobel Prize for his discovery.
Early radiotherapy consisted of a single massive dose of radiation, typically la
sting an hour. Side effects were severe. In 1914, an Austrian doctor controversi
ally suggested that radiotherapy might work better if it was given in many small
er doses ('fractionated radiotherapy'). This sparked a debate that lasted until
1922, when Claudius Regaud conclusively proved that fractionated therapy was jus
t as effective as single-dose therapy, but caused fewer side effects.[2]
The 1920s also saw the emergence of the radiographer as a specialist profession.
Despite these advances, radiotherapy was predominantly used to alleviate sympto
ms ('palliative' treatment) rather than actually cure cancer.
Over the next thirty years, engineers built ever more powerful x-ray sources. Th
e more powerful an x-ray, the further into the body it penetrates and the less d
amage it does to the skin. X-ray energies are measured in Kilovolts (KV) or Mega
volts (MV; 1MV = 1000KV).
In the 1920s, x-ray generators were only capable of making x-rays at about 200KV
(for comparison, the natural gamma-rays emitted by radium are about 1.2MV). By
the 1950s, engineers had developed an 8MV x-ray generator (or 'linear accelerato
r'). Nowadays, an x-ray machine in a typical hospital will have an energy of abo
ut 10MV.
Since then, a number of technological developments have allowed radiologists to
target the x-ray beam more accurately and avoid damaging normal tissue, further
improving radiotherapy as a cancer treatment. [3]