R. Susworo; Radiologist, Faculty of Medicine University of Indonesia;Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital X-ray was invented by WC Roentgen in 1895. It became an important milestone in thedevelopment of radiology, either for diagnostic purpose and the treatment of cancer usingradiotherapy modality.In the diagnostic field, the usage of X-ray covering a lot of methods which rapidly developedparallel with the advanced of technology. It was initiated just after the discovery of thismiracle beam. Conventional radiology is the simplest imaging method. This method occupies the mostfrequent examinations such as chest tuberculosis, lung cancer, emphysema, etc and theheart to detect enlargement. Examination of the bones due to fracture or degenerativeprocess become the second most frequent examination. The role of this plain film todetect bone tumours was replaced by CT Scan in the last decades. To identify opaquestone in the urinary tract, kidneys or ureter, or biliary tract, a plain abdominal film issufficient. The occurrence of the stone should be followed by another radiologyexamination(s).To depict organs consisting of soft tissue, the administration of contrast materials issometimes required. Iodine content dye materials is commonly used in the examination ofurinary tract and blood vessels. While sulfate barium in a porridge from substance isimportant to delineate hollow organs such as the intestine.Mammography was accepted as an imaging diagnostic tools to detect (early) cancer ofthe breast. A lot of publications have reported the importance of this examination on highrisk women and a long epidemiological studies have proven that this routine examinationhas lowered mortality rate of women suffer from breast malignancy.In the developed countries there are significant increase of death rate caused bymalignant diseases, heart infract, and cerebal hemorrhage. Several radiologicalexaminations have been developed to identify those ailments. Angiography is one ofsome modalities in the attempt of depicting abnormalities 1n the blood vessels or relatedto it. This examination is applied in clinically suspected tumour of certain organs (liver,brain, kidney) or malformation (A VM), blood vessels abnormalities (stenosis, aneurysm).The advanced of technology has allowed the physicians to examine more than theycould do in the past. The first generation of CT Scan has been used in the medical field inthe mind sixties. Nowadays, three dimensional CT Scan or CT Angio is available to getmore information from various diseases in order to establish proper diagnosis.Nuclear medicine is another modality using radioactivity for either diagnostic andtherapeutic purposes. SPECT and PET are the most recent development in this field. In the treatment of cancer, radiotherapy is now known as radiation oncology due to the factthat in implementing this modality either physics aspects of radiotherapy and oncology playimportant role. Radiation Oncology has been accepted as one of treatment modalities in themanagement of cancer since years, in complementary with surgery and chemotherapy.It is cosidered as cheap and non invasive method.PROCEEDING PUBLIC INFORMATION SEMINARON THE APPLICATION OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR HUMAN WELFAREJAKARTA, FEBRUARY 13-15,2001~ Some early stage cancers could be cured by radiotherapy as single modality. PaJliativeintention could be achieved by late stage patients in Order to alleviate the symptoms andto improve the quality of life.Radiation beams used consists of generated beams, : X-ray, neutron, proton, heavy ionsand radioisotopes: Cobalt-6O, Radium-225,Caesium-137, lodine-133, Iridium-194, etc.The discovery of various isotopes and treatment methods (afterloading, comformationtechnique, IMRT, etc.) has significantly improved local control and increased survival rateof cancer patients. On the other hand it lowered the radiation side effects.
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