THE DEVELOPMENT OF RADIOTHERAPY IN DENMARK DURING 100 YEARS - FROM RADIOLOGY TO ONCOLOGY

The evolution of radiotherapy in Denmark is traced from its early ince ption in 1896 to the first three radium centres in 1913-1914, the esta blishment of which caused a roar of protests among the surgeons of tha t time, Private initiative pioneered the Radium Foundation which raise d money for radium and financed erection of new buildings for the thre e centres in the 1930s, Radiotherapy became a separate speciality in 1 950, The early 1960s saw the introduction of megavoltage therapy and t he first promising results from chemotherapeutic management of solid t umours. The consequent referral of patients to centres for non-surgica l therapy created a need for two new centres (Aalborg and Herlev) and called for a gradual closing down of decentralized low-voltage treatme nt at county level, However, the decentralization of health care in 19 70 partly reversed this trend and some patients were therefore referre d for decentralized treatment at major county hospitals, Such treatmen t mainly consisted of adjuvant or palliative chemotherapy, though in a few counties palliative therapy was supported by low-voltage therapy, In 1987 the medical speciality of radiotherapy was officially renamed oncology.