The History of Nuclear Medicine
Michael Ljungberg in Handbook of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging for Physicists, 2022
Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867–1934) and her husband Pierre Curie (1859–1906) discovered the same type of penetrating radiation from uranium and named the phenomenon radioactivity in 1897. Furthermore, the Curie couple discovered the elements polonium (Z=84) and radium (Z=88), where 226Ra for many years became a frequently used ‘panacea’ for various ailments, both in vivo and in vitro. Almost directly after these incredible discoveries, radiation from different constructed X-ray tubes and the gamma radiation from 226Ra were used for various medical applications as well as for enjoyment for some decades. In medicine, radium sources were used for brachytherapy or teletherapy for almost the entire twentieth century. Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901, while Becquerel and the Curie couple were the Nobel Laureates in Physics in 1903 (Figure 1.1). Other Nobel Laureates with special relevance to nuclear medicine are listed in Table 1.1.
The Historical Experience*
Vilma R. Hunt, Kathleen Lucas-Wallace, Jeanne M. Manson in Work and the Health of Women, 2020
Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre discovered polonium and radium in 1898, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize. X-rays had also been discovered and similarly recognized. There was an immediate development of new medical, scientific, and industrial uses with a proliferation of inventions using X-rays and radioisotopes in many parts of the world. Almost immediately adverse effects of X-rays on the health of physicists, chemists, and radiologists were recognized. For example, within 3 months of Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays, Thomas Edison in the U.S. experienced conjunctivitis from X-ray exposure. More serious skin burns and ulceration became evident within a year and malignancies were being documented by 1911. The victims were research workers, radiologists, laboratory assistants, technicians, and nurses. By the time radiography was coming into industrial use, the need for protection by shielding and controlled exposure had been recognized. However, the protection itself was slow in coming and not universally used, even though the efficacy of lead shielding was known from before 1903. The disfigurement, chronic illness, severe anemias, and terminal cancers of health professionals and scientists were in marked contrast to the expectant public view that X-rays provided remarkable diagnoses and miraculous cures.16
Indoor Air Quality
James M. Rippe in Lifestyle Medicine, 2019
Radon-222 is a noble gas that is produced from the decay of uranium-238 and radium-226, which are naturally present in the earth’s rock and soil. It decays with a half-life of 3.8 days. It can diffuse itself into the soil and air before decaying. The breakdown of radon-222 occurs by emission of an alpha particle which produces radioactive progeny that include polonium-218 and polonium-214.34,35 These are known as the “short-lived” progeny, and they, in turn, break down into “long-lived” progeny that include lead-210, which yields bismuth-210, which yields the stable isotopes polonium-210 and lead-206. This whole decay process takes hundreds of years. When inhaled into the lung, the alpha-particles can damage cellular DNA and lead to mutagenesis in never-smoking lung cancer cases.36
Cohort profile – MSK radiation workers: a feasibility study to establish a deceased worker sub-cohort as part of a multicenter medical radiation worker component in the million person study of low-dose radiation health effects
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2022
Lawrence T. Dauer, Meghan Woods, Daniel Miodownik, Brian Serencsits, Brian Quinn, Michael Bellamy, Craig Yoder, Xiaolin Liang, John D. Boice, Jonine Bernstein
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) consisting of Memorial Hospital (MH) and the Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI) laboratories has a unique history with regard to the use of radiation for the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of cancer and allied diseases. The initial New York Cancer Hospital (NYCH) was founded in 1884, barely a decade before the seminal burst of discoveries in radiation. Wilhelm Roentgen discovers ‘X-Rays’ in 1895 and a week later makes his famous first X-ray images of the hand of Mrs. Roentgen (Anna Bertha Ludwig) wearing her wedding ring (Pietzch 2018). Henri Becquerel subsequently discovered ‘radioactivity’ and radioactive materials in 1896 and this was quickly followed by the discovery of ‘polonium’ and ‘radium’ by the Curies (Nobel 2018). Immediate attention is given to the application of these rays and materials to the healing arts. Research and use began almost immediately across the world, even in New York where Thomas Edison demonstrated fluoroscopes in 1896 (King 2012). As early as 1902, the NYCH employed X-Rays and X-ray therapies, practices that continue through the present. Also, as early as 1902, several adverse biological effects began to be identified in some medical radiation workers, both short-term (e.g. reddening of the skin, dermatitis, skin ulceration, epilation, eye irritation) and longer-term (e.g. skin cancers, cataracts, and other cancers) (Linet et al. 2010).
Novichok: a murderous nerve agent attack in the UK
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2018
J. Allister Vale, Timothy C. Marrs, Robert L. Maynard
On 7 March 2018, it was announced that the Skripals had been exposed to “nerve agent” and on the 12 March 2018 the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, told the House of Commons that this was a Novichok nerve agent. This finding has been confirmed independently by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) [3]. OPCW experts visited the locations where the victims were exposed and collected environmental samples. The OPCW team also took biomedical samples from the three exposed individuals. The results of analysis by the OPCW designated laboratories confirmed the findings made by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), Porton Down, relating to the identity of the agent [3]. In addition, OPCW confirmed that that the chemical employed in Salisbury was of high purity, a conclusion drawn on the basis of the almost complete absence of impurities [3]. Speculation as to the source of the compound and as to how it was deployed has continued. DSTL established that the highest concentrations of agent were found on the handle of Mr Skripal's front door and that it was deposited as a liquid [4]. Sir Mark Sedwill, the UK's National Security Adviser, stated on 13 April 2018, “We therefore continue to judge that only Russia has the technical means, operational experience and motive for the attack on the Skripals and that it is highly likely that the Russian state was responsible. There is no plausible alternative explanation” [4]. This is not the first incident of this kind on UK soil; the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko using polonium-210 occurred in 2006 [5].
MPS dose reconstruction for internal emitters: some site-specific issues and approaches
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2022
Richard W. Leggett, Keith F. Eckerman, Michael Bellamy
The worker cohort in the Mound study includes workers involved in a 210Po project conducted at a Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, from 1943 to 1948, when the project was transferred to the Mound site. The Dayton facility separated 210Po from natural materials for use in polonium-beryllium neutron generators. This project was continued at Mound until 1959. Several other projects involving various radionuclides were conducted at Mound between 1949 and 1995, including production of 210Po heat sources for radioisotope thermoelectric generators from 1953 to 1969 and 238Pu heat sources from 1959 to 1995. Over 2300 workers had biossays for polonium and about 1500 had bioassays for Pu (Boice et al. 2014).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Alpha Particle
- Bismuth
- Radioactive Decay
- Radiolysis
- Selenium
- Tellurium
- Lead
- Half-Life
- Polonium-210
- Decay Chain