Clinical Radiation Oncology

In the clinical setting of radiation, an American medical student, Emil Grubbe, the son of German immigrants, introduced the term “radiotherapy” in 1903 with his interest in comparing the effects of phototherapy and radiotherapy. Since then, radiation oncology field has developed rapidly in parallel with technology and has become indispensable in cancer therapy. After field separation of diagnostic and therapeutic use of radiation, radiation oncology as an internal medicine branch was established using ionizing radiation of various types and energies for the treatment of cancer and some benign diseases. In its infancy, radiation oncology made use of several treatment modalities and machines. The process of new treatment modalities blazed a trail in the medical community, and this development process is still continuing in the field of radiation oncology. Around 50–60% of all cancer cases require radiotherapy at some stage during the course of treatment. The radiation oncologist taking a multidisciplinary approach of surgery, medical oncology, nuclear medicine, and radiology decides on the radiation therapy indication when deciding on the final radiotherapy treatment in clinical practice. Basic concepts that are crucial to understanding clinical radiation oncology are reviewed in depth in this chapter.