History of the Proton

HISTORY OF PROTON BEAM THERAPY

1929 Cyclotron invented by Ernest O. Lawrence as a way to accelerate nuclear particles to very high speeds. 1930s 60-inch cyclotron built at Berkeley Radiation Laboratory with financing from the late William H. Crocker, a University of California regent. Machine is used in creation of seven new elements. 1939 Lawrence wins Nobel Prize in physics for invention of cylotron. 1946 Lawrence protégée Robert R. Wilson, a professor of physics at Harvard and designer of Harvard's cyclotron, first proposes using protons for the treatment of cancer. 1948 Berkeley Radiation Laboratory conducts extensive studies on protons and confirms predictions made by Wilson. 1954 First patient treated with protons at Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. 1957 Treatment successfully duplicated on patients in Uppsala, Sweden. 1950s Lawrence offers 60-inch cyclotron to John Jungerman, who would become the founding director of the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory at UC Davis. In collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., the Berkeley machine is modified to a 76-inch cyclotron. 1961 Harvard treats first patient in its cyclotron. 1964 Magnets built at Berkeley Radiation Laboratory (renamed the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) move to Davis. The Crocker Nuclear Laboratory at UC Davis is dedicated in 1966. 1970s Atomic Energy Commission cuts off funding for nuclear facilities at universities. UC Davis cyclotron survives by finding new applications for cyclotron science in areas such as air quality, testing historical documents, food safety and cancer treatment. 1972 UC Davis cyclotron team develops the first method for making pure iodine-123, employed in thyroid imaging and to detect tumors. 1974 Los Alamos National Laboratory cyclotron treats first patient with pi-meson beam. 1975 Use of ionized particle beams to treat eye cancers pioneered by team of scientists using the Harvard cyclotron. 1978 UCSF and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory team begins clinical trials of choroidal melanoma treatment with ionized helium beam. 1980s UC Davis cyclotron used by historians and archaeologists to analyze chemistry of ink and paper without damaging documents, dates a copy of Gutenberg Bible to within three days. 1988 Proton therapy approved by FDA as radiation-treatment option for certain tumors. 1990 Loma Linda University opens first hospital-based proton-beam clinic. The 250 MeV machine is designed and built by Fermilab, where Wilson was the founding director, with $19.6 million in federal funding. 1992 Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's clinical treatment program ends with closure of its Bevatron cyclotron. More than 2,500 patients had been treated at the lab since 1954. 1994 Timothy R. Renner, Ph.D., Proton Eye Treatment Facility established at Crocker Nuclear Laboratory at UC Davis. 1999 UC Davis Cancer Center and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory establish formal research partnership to apply defense technology to cancer research — the first such agreement between a major cancer center and a national laboratory. 2000 UC Davis Cancer Center and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory begin work on a compact proton-beam therapy system. The two institutions eventually contribute $3 million in funding to support George Caporaso's work. 2001 Northeast Proton Therapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital treats first patient. 2006 June: $125 million, 94,000-squarefoot Proton Therapy Center at MD Anderson in Houston opens to patients. August: Caporaso reports on compact proton-beam therapy system at the 19th International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry in Fort Worth.