Journey through technological advancements in radiation therapy

Figure 1 Gordon Isaacs, the first patient treated with the linear accelerator (radiation therapy) for retinoblastoma, sitting on a table[9]. Citation: National Cancer Institute. Linear accelerator to treat retinoblastoma 1957. [cited 5 March 2026]. Available from: https://visualsonline.cancer.gov/details.cfm?imageid=1924. Copyright: ©The Authors 1957. Published by National Cancer Institute Publications. The authors have obtained the permission (Supplementary material).

Figure 2  Schematic illustration of the radiotherapy treatment workflow, depicting sequential stages from imaging and simulation to contouring, treatment planning, set-up verification, and treatment response assessment.

Figure 3  Sectional diagram of gamma knife.

Figure 4  Cyber knife S7 installed at Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Jaipur.

Figure 5  Schematic diagram of synchrotron.

Figure 6 Schematic layout of a heavy ion particle therapy facility. RFQ: Radio frequency quadruple.

Figure 7  Overview of artificial intelligence applications in radiotherapy, demonstrating its role in automated contouring, dose prediction, treatment precision enhancement, and workflow standardization to reduce clinical variability.

Figure 8 Clinical workflow diagram for biology-guided radiotherapy. PET: Positron emission tomography; BGRT: Biologically guided radiation therapy; EOT: End-of-treatment.

Figure 9  Regional distribution of radiotherapy equipment per million population worldwide, highlighting significant disparities in radiotherapy infrastructure availability between high-income and low- and middle-income regions.