Cobalt radiotherapy treatment in France, 1950s. Patient receiving cobalt-60 radiotherapy for cancer. Radiotherapy is the use of ionising radiation to treat cancer. Cobalt-60 is a radioactive isotope that emits gamma rays. Here, it is being used at the first such facility in France, referred to at the time as a 'cobalt bomb' treatment. The machine is an Eldorado beam therapy unit, developed by the Eldorado mining company in Ottawa, Canada. This photograph is part of a series documenting the Marshall Plan, which provided aid from the USA to post-war Europe. Aid was provided from 1948 to 1952. Photographed at the Hartmann Clinic in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, France, where this radiotherapy unit was installed in February 1955. |