The hazy dawn of brachytherapy.

The discovery of radium by Pierre and Marie Curie in December 1898 opened a new era in science and within a few years provided medicine with a new means of tumor treatment. Their personal contribution to the start and early development of clinical applications should not be overlooked. The Curies did not limit their support to providing radium sources to medical pioneers but took a deep interest in the horizons of radium therapy. Pierre was one of the first to search for and demonstrate a biological effect of radium radiation. He investigated the radioactivity of the waters of hydrotherapeutic resorts. Marie took care of the measurement of the medical sources personally, convinced that the result of the treatment depends on the precise knowledge of the amount of radium applied. Her perseverance resulted in the establishment of the Institut du Radium (1909) in which, besides the physico-chemical laboratory, a biological department was set up. The latter became the Fondation Curie (1920), a leading medical center of treatment and training, with an integrated team of physicists, radiobiologists and clinicians led by Regaud. One hundred years after the discovery of radium, patients benefit today from the extensive clinical experience that has been collected over the years and from sophisticated developments in application techniques, dosimetry and quality assurance; the professional risk has been precisely assessed and the improvements in material and procedure have enabled the medical personnel to work in hazard-free conditions. This outcome results from the continuous progress that the pioneers gave impulse to. This paper intends to recall their efforts and achievements, as well as the difficulties and the problems they encountered during the first 2 decades when the sturdy foundations of brachytherapy were built.