IEEE Milestone Dedication: Cobalt-60 Radiation Cancer Treatment Machines, 1951

The Dedication Ceremony will establish an “IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing” by the installation of plaques commemorating the development and first uses of Cobalt-60 cancer treatment machines in Saskatoon, SK, and London, ON, in 1951. The Saskatoon host location will be the Saskatchewan Cyclotron Facility, managed by the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation, who continue to “…apply nuclear science in order to advance medical health and environmental sustainability for the benefit of society…”, and to recognize Dr. Sylvia Fedoruk and other members of the scientific team in Saskatchewan. Abstract: The development and use of cobalt-60 cancer treatment machines made a significant and positive contribution to health care worldwide. While X rays produced by X-ray tubes had been used for cancer treatment since the 1920s, their energy was not sufficiently high to achieve adequate and focused penetration to deep-seated lesions in the body. Radium sources had been used with some success but was very expensive. Dr. Harold Johns, a Canadian medical physicist, recognized that cobalt-60, which could be produced in a nuclear reactor, had a long enough half-life and emissions of sufficient strength to potentially replace radium. He provided the guiding force that led to development of a suitable source, a machine to contain it, and a methodology and data to control it that were still required before this potential could be realized in a practical setting. Development and calibration of a cobalt-60 radiation therapy machine proved effective for treatment of deep-seated tumours, and in 1951 two teams of medical physicists, engineers, and radiation oncologists in London (Ontario) and Saskatoon (Saskatchewan), independently, yet cooperatively, designed the first cobalt-60 radiation treatment machines or “cobalt bombs”. These machines directed gamma radiation directly on cancerous tumours. The first use of the cobalt treatment was on 27 October 1951 at Victoria Hospital, London. Decades of effective worldwide use and the many millions of lives extended have proven the efficacy of this technology and the benefit to humanity. Co-sponsored by: Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation, Inc. Speaker(s): Denard, Jeter Agenda: 10:00 AM: Welcome – Denard Lynch, MC) 10:05 AM: Introduction – Milestone Committee representative from IEEE North Saskatchewan Section (Denard Lynch) 10:15 AM: Remarks – Representative from host organization from Sylvia Fedoruk Centre (Jeter Hall) 10:25 AM: Closing Remarks, thank you’s, introductions and announcements (Denard Lynch) 10:30 AM: Refreshments Room: N/A, Bldg: Saskatchewan Cyclotron Facility, 120 Maintenance Road, University of Saskatchewan Campus, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, S7N 5C4