The History and Radiobiology of Hypofractionation

The use of hypofractionation in radiation therapy is not a new concept. In fact, it is a very old one, dating back to the first third of the twentieth century, the earliest days of the field that would evolve into today’s specialty of radiation oncology. Since its earliest incarnation, however, hypofractionation has been “repurposed” for today’s use, thanks to more than a century of advances in physics and imaging that now allow most normal tissue to be excluded.