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Radiotherapy has been driven by constant technological advances since the discovery of X rays in 1895. This Timeline article covers the history of radiotherapy and focuses on the advances of major importance in the past two decades. These changes have provided clinical benefit for patients with cancer.

The objective of this study was to assess the value of apoptosis protease‐activating factor 1 (APAF‐1) as a predictive marker of response in rectal tumors treated with preoperative, high‐dose‐rate endorectal brachytherapy.Immunohistochemistry for APAF‐1 was performed on 94 rectal tumor biopsy specimens from patients who were treated on a preoperative, high‐dose‐rate brachytherapy protocol. Tumors were considered positive when > 10% of tumor cells were immunoreactive. The association between APAF‐1 expression and tumor response was made using the chi‐square test.Forty‐four tumors (43%) were positive for APAF‐1. Thirty tumors had complete pathologic tumor regression after preoperative radiotherapy. Of these, 18 tumors were positive for APAF‐1. A partial response occurred in 35 tumors. Eighteen tumors (51%) were positive for the protein. Only 8 of 29 nonresponsive tumors (28%) were immunoreactive for APAF‐1. A significant association was found between complete tumor regression and positive APAF‐1 status (P = 0.018). APAF‐1 expression in partially responsive tumors was significantly greater than in nonresponsive tumors (P = 0.03).APAF‐1 expression in pretreatment rectal tumor biopsy specimens may be useful as a predictive marker of response to preoperative radiotherapy in patients with rectal carcinoma. Cancer 2006. © 2005 American Cancer Society.

Introduction:Management options for individuals with early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) include combined modality therapy (CMT), and chemotherapy alone. The HD.6 randomized phase III trial, in which ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) alone was compared with radiation based therapy, comprises the largest prospectively collected data set of individuals with limited stage HL treated with ABVD alone with long-term follow-up [Meyer JCO 2005, NEJM 2012]. Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer are considered a vulnerable population, in part due to unique psychosocial challenges and distinct disease biology. The most common cancer observed among AYAs is HL. However, studies focusing specifically on AYAs diagnosed with limited stage HL are scarce. We sought to evaluate the impact of age on outcomes of individuals with stage IA and IIA non-bulky HL, treated with ABVD alone.