Beginnings: 1947-1961
Around 1947 members of the Department of Physics at the University of Saskatchewan decided to obtain a 25 MeV Betatron. The principal interest was in nuclear physics, but they were also interested its possible therapeutic uses in the treatment of cancer, and they obtained support from then-Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas. Funding was obtained from the Atomic Energy Control Board, the National Research Council (NRC), the National Cancer Institute, local cancer societies and the University. The machine was installed in summer 1948 in a new building built in one angle of the existing Physics department, connected to the main building. It was manufactured by the Allis-Chalmers Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was very similar to the one being used at the time by Donald Kerst at the University of Illinois. The first cancer patient was treated on Mar. 29, 1949 starting the really first concerted clinical investigation of the usefulness of the betatron as a radiotherapeutic tool, with over 300 patients treated in 17 years of operation. The success of the program led to the installation of the world's first cobalt-60 source for radiotherapy at the University in 1951.
Read more about this topic: Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory