A BRIEF HISTORY OF FRACTIONATED STEREOTACTIC RADIOTHERAPY:
“Stereotactic neurosurgery originated from the pioneering work of Horsley and Clarke, who developed a stereotactic apparatus to study the monkey brain in 1908. Spiegel and Wycis applied this technology to the human brain in 1947, which ultimately lead to the development of multiple stereotactic neurosurgical devices during the 1950s. It was Lars Leksell of Sweden, however, who envisioned stereotactic radiosurgery. Leksell developed the gamma knife to treat intracranial lesions in a noninvasive fashion. His work stimulated worldwide interest and created the field of stereotactic radiosurgery.”
STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRACTIONATED STEREOTACTIC RADIOTHERAPY:
“There are three basic kinds of equipment, each of which uses different instruments and sources of radiation:
- The Gamma Knife®, which uses 192 or 201 beams of highly focused gamma rays all aiming at the target region. The Gamma Knife is ideal for treating small to medium size intracranial lesions. See the Gamma Knife page for more information.
- Linear accelerator (LINAC) machines, prevalent throughout the world, deliver high-energy x-rays, also known as photons. The linear accelerator can perform SRS on larger tumors in a single session or during multiple sessions, which is called fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy. Multiple manufacturers make this type of machine, which have brand names such as Novalis Tx™, XKnife™, Axesse™ and CyberKnife®. See the Linear Accelerator page for more information.
- Proton beam or heavy-charged-particle radiosurgery is in limited use in North America, though the number of centers offering proton therapy has increased dramatically in the last several years. See the Proton Therapy page for more information.”
PIONEERS IN THE HISTORY OF FRACTIONATED STEREOTACTIC RADIOTHERAPY:
“Throughout the first decades of the 20th century, Claudius Regaud and his contemporaries at the Radium Institute of Paris helped develop various radium-based treatment strategies that served as alternatives to surgical resections.”
“In the 1920s, Henri Coutard applied the concept of fractionated XRT with treatment courses protracted over several weeks. Using this strategy, he was able to cure patients with a variety of head and neck malignancies and to popularize this concept of fractionation in the international community.”
REFERENCES:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19751866
https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/69/2/383
https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=stereotactic
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5675478/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19751866/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/stereotactic-radiosurgery/about/pac-20384526
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-387-71070-9_1