![]() Natural Radium-226 had been proposed to solve this issue but its mining was painstakingly inefficient and too costly the level of radioactivity that could be extracted limited the ‘dose rate’ achievable from a radium treatment machine – radiation treatment times would be intolerable for patients. This was the first major advancement in the radiation treatment of all cancers, aside from skin cancer, since Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895. ![]() ![]() The development of Cobalt-60 radiation therapy opened a treatment window into the human body and, for the very first time in history, we were able to treat deep-seated tumours without harming the skin. However, the first treatment of patients was delayed past the London date by a few weeks, much to the ongoing chagrin of the Saskatoon team. Harold Johns, duly credited as the ‘inventor’ of Cobalt machines. Pioneering physics development had taken place there under the leadership of Dr. Ivan Smith, a Department of Therapeutic Radiology professor at The University of Western Ontario and Cancer Clinic director at Victoria Hospital.Īnother Cobalt-60 source had arrived earlier at the Saskatoon Cancer Clinic. Just a little over a week later, its widely publicized first medical use took place under the clinical direction of Dr. London’s radioactive source was pre-calibrated by staff of the National Research Council and first installed at Victoria Hospital on Oct. Revolutionizing cancer treatment throughout the world and serving as an excellent example of highly effective patient-oriented translational research, the Cobalt-60 radiation technology, nicknamed the Eldorado ‘Cobalt Bomb’, was developed by physicist and engineers at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and the Eldorado Mining Company.
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