History of radiotherapy in Poland. A brief outline of the problem

Objectives The aim of this paper is to give brief outline on the history of radiotherapy in Poland from its beginnings until first decades of the second half of 20th century. Methods The study is based on comparative and reconstructive analyses of literature, papers and communications dealing with the history of radiotherapy in Poland. Results The history of radiotherapy in Poland can be perceived as a gradual process of shaping research centres and practical (clinical) application of radiotherapeutics. The Radium Institute in Warsaw, as well as radiotherapy centers in Poznań and Kraków gained key importance in the period up to the outbreak of World War II. After the end of the war, Gliwice became another important place for the history of the radiotherapy and oncology in Poland. Conclusions Radiotherapy was early recognized by Polish physicians as promising in clinical treatment. It should be a subject of further studies, especially when formative period, thus before First World War, is analysed.

Irene Joliot-Curie, Frederic Joliot-Curie

Irene Joliot-Curie is the daughter of Marie Curie, a double Nobel Prize-winner. In 1925, Irene Curie became Doctor of Science.In 1926, Irene married her colleague Frederic Joliot, an assistant at the Radium Institute. With him, she continued experiments with various chemical elements. In some of these experiments, Irene and Frederic performed bombardment of boron, and aluminium with alpha particles, thereby producing new chemical elements. These new elements were radioactive: aluminum became radioactive phosphorus, while boron became a radioactive isotope of nitrogen. Within a short time, Joliot-Curie created many new radioactive elements. In 1935, Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their artificial creation of new radioactive elements Working with uranium in the late 1930s, Irene Joliot-Curie made several important discoveries and came close to the discovery of uranium decay, when bombarded with neutrons.Jean Frederic Joliot was born in Paris, in the family of a prosperous merchant Henri Joliot and Emilia (Roederer) Joliot, who came from a wealthy Protestant family from Alsace.Frederic obtained his Doctor of Science degree in 1930 for a thesis on the electrochemistry of radioactive polonium. Having received the Nobel Prize in 1935 together with his wife, 35-year-old Frederick still remains the youngest Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.The discoveries and achievements of the Joliot-Curie family laid the foundation for further research in nuclear physics, chemistry, and nuclear medicine. Without their discoveries, it is impossible to imagine modern science and everyday life.

Empowering Underground Laboratories Network Usage in the Baltic Sea Region

<p>In the Baltic Sea region, there are world leading science organisations and industrial companies specialised in geophysics, geology and underground construction. There are also several highly interesting underground laboratories (ULs), research mines and test-sites,  that are not utilised to their full potential.</p><p>Six of these facilities cooperate within the Interreg Baltic Sea Region program funded project, Empowering Underground Laboratories Network Usage (EUL) [1]. Underground facilities have been established into existing or historical mines, research tunnel networks or as a dedicated underground laboratory for a specific purpose. The EUL project continues in 2021 the work of the Interreg funded Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN) [2], that ended in December 2020. While the BSUIN project concentrated on characterising the underground facilities and operational settings, the EUL project works on testing, validation, and enhancing previously created practices, tools, and approaches. During the EUL project, the emphasis is put on identifying the global user segments of underground facilities, the effectiveness of marketing of ULs and created network, now known as European Underground Laboratories Association, and customer relations management from the first contact to the realisation of the project.</p><p>The underground laboratories participating in BSUIN and EUL projects are Callio Lab (Pyhäjärvi Finland), ÄSPÖ Hard Rock Laboratory (Oskarshamn, Sweden), Ruskela Mining Park (Ruskeala, Russia), Educational and research mine Reiche Zeche (Freiberg, Germany), Underground Low Background Laboratory of the Khlopin Radium Institute (St.Petersburg, Russia) and the Conceptual Lab development co-ordinated by KGHM Cuprum R&D centre (Poland).</p><p>One of the main objectives of EUL project is to test the developed business and service concepts for the established network of underground laboratories and for the individual laboratories. Testing ensures the functionality of laboratory service concepts and customer relationship management processes for commercial and non-commercial users.</p><p>Another main objective is to test and develop the web-based tool (WBT). Users from partner and associative organisations and underground laboratories (Uls) will test it from their perspectives. The feedback helps to steer the tool into the more user-friendly and more purposeful direction for the potential customers and the underground laboratory managers to use.</p><p>To reach new customers and understand different possible customer segments, a big data analysis of users of ULs world-wide will be conducted. Also marketing the network and underground laboratories will be tested and best marketing strategies identified.</p><p>Main target groups are the ULs, their users and potential customers (companies and researchers). Another target group is regional development agencies that will be informed about the business possibilities in ULs so that they can provide information to potential customers looking for business opportunities.</p><div> <p>In this paper, the EUL project's first outcomes will be discussed reflected to the BSUIN project. The BSUIN and EUL projects are funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Progamme.</p> <p>[1] Empowering Underground Laboratories Network Usage, www.bsuin.eu, 18 Jan 2021</p> <p>[2] Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network, www.bsuin.eu, 18 Jan 2021</p> </div>

Using hot isostatic pressing for radioactive waste isolation purposes

The paper summarizes the findings of a study focused on hot isostatic pressing (HIP) technique implemented by the Khlopin Radium institute. The equipment was designed and manufactured at the Kharkov’s Physics and Technology Institute. The installation provided a pressure of up to 400 NPa with the pressing temperature of up to 1250°C. The experiments were carried out on installations located in hot cells in the radiochemical department (Gatchina city). Samples of materials for HLW immobilization (titanate ceramics of the synroc type, stabilized cubic zirconia) and matrices for 129I immobilization based on copper iodide and metallic copper were obtained. The leaching rate from these samples of HLW elements (simulators) amounted to (0.5—1.5)·10–9 g/(cm2 ·day). Despite the high-performance characteristics of the materials obtained, some problems were revealed associated with the remote maintenance of equipment and the lack of industrial design analogues. Considering the experience gained, we believe that fairly simple equipment can be designed implying no complex systems and providing minimum preparatory operations. Joint efforts of technologists and designers will enable the automatization of equipment management and control through local control systems. Material loading and unloading operations can be robotized as well. Such technical solutions are expected to be in demand at industrial facilities for HLW final disposal (or when handling damaged fuel during the decommissioning of radiation and nuclear hazardous facilities).

50th anniversary of the first clinical trial with ICI 46,474 (tamoxifen): then what happened?

Following the discovery and approval of the oral contraceptive, the pharmaceutical industry sought new opportunities for the regulation of reproduction. The discovery of the first non-steroidal anti-oestrogen MER25, with antifertility properties in laboratory animals, started a search for ‘morning-after pills’. There were multiple options in the 1960s, however, one compound ICI 46,474 was investigated, but found to induce ovulation in subfertile women. A second option was to treat stage IV breast cancer. Although the patent for ICI 46,474 was awarded in the early 1960s in the UK and around the world, a patent in the USA was denied on the basis that the claims for breast cancer treatment were not supported by evidence. A trial at the Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute in Manchester, published in 1971, showed activity compared with alternatives: high-dose oestrogen or androgen treatment, but the US Patent Office was unswayed until 1985! The future of tamoxifen to be, was in the balance in 1972 but the project went forward as an orphan drug looking for applications and a translational research strategy was needed. Today, tamoxifen is known as the first targeted therapy in cancer with successful applications to treat all stages of breast cancer, male breast cancer, and the first medicine for the reduction of breast cancer incidence in high-risk pre- and post-menopausal women. This is the unlikely story of how an orphan medicine changed medical practice around the world, with millions of women’s lives extended.

Results of the fourth combined scientific expedition for the radition monitoring in the Kurily-Kamchatka region of the Pacific ocean

This paper continues the series of publications on evaluation of the consequences of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant accident and the impact of the emergency radionuclide discharges on the contamination of the sea biota and coastal areas of the Far-East regions. In autumn 2019, the fourth scientific expedition of the Russian geographic society on the monitoring of the radiation situation in Kurily-Kamchatka region was performed on the training vessel «Professor Khlyustin». The expedition included 9 specialists from noncommercial organization «Polar research Fund «Polar Fund», «Russian state hydrometeorological institute», «Radium institute after V.G. Khlopin» of the State Corporation «Rosatom», «Kurchatov institute», «SaintPetersburg research institute of radiation hygiene after prof. P.V. Ramzaev» and «Marine state university after admiral G.I. Nevelsky». The aim of the fourth expedition was to evaluate the radiation situation in the Sea of Japan and Kurily-Kamchatka region after the Fukushima-1 NPP accident as a continuation of the similar marine expeditions in 2011, 2012 and 2014. The survey was performed in the water area of the sea of Japan and Okhotsk sea. The results indicate that the concentration of 137Cs and 90Sr in sea water, hydrobionts, soil, ground and sea vegetation is still on the baseline level due to the global fallouts.

BSUIN – Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network

<p>The Baltic Sea region hosts numerous underground facilities or underground laboratories (Uls). The Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN) there are six such facilities, all unique in their characteristics and operational settings, e.g. located in existing or historical mines, research tunnel networks or as a dedicated underground laboratory for a specific purpose. BSUIN project concentrates on the making the Uls more accessible for current and new users,  helping the Uls to understand their infrastructural challenges and possibilities, and through joint marketing to attract a broader spectrum of users into their facilities.</p><p>The underground laboratories participating in BSUIN are Callio Lab (Pyhäjärvi Finland), ÄSPÖ Hard Rock Laboratory (Oskarshamn, Sweden), Ruskela Mining Park (Ruskeala, Russia), Educational and research mine Reiche Zeche (Freiberg, Germany), Underground Low Background Laboratory of the Khlopin Radium Institute (St.Petersburg, Russia) and the Conceptual Lab development co-ordinated by KGHM Cuprum R&D centre (Poland).</p><p>We will present the overview of the project, key outcomes, findings and recommendations for underground laboratories in general. The key outcomes of the project for the individual underground laboratories consist of characterisation of the structural, geological and operational environments together with information on the governing legislation and authorities for the underground sites. Underground risks and challenges in the underground working environment have been documented to help the further development of the individual underground laboratories. Service designs were developed together with the ULs to enhance user support and to attract a broader spectrum of users.  To help users with innovation and innovation management the variety of the innovation services was documented to be used as bases for the future operational development of the ULs. To support the marketing, coordinate activities and develop the cooperation an umbrella organisation European Underground Laboratories association (EUL) will be established to carry on the work started in BSUIN.</p><p>The Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network, BSUIN, is funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme. </p>

Radiation Characteristics of Borosilicate Glass Containing High-Level Waste

The article presents computational and analytical studies dealing with radiation characteristics of liquid high-level waste vitrified using borosilicate glass (BSS). To confirm the quality of glass on a time scale of up to 10 4 years and more, computational and experimental studies are performed to identify the dose loads on the BSS from all types of radiation. The paper presents the results of computational studies focused on radionuclide composition and radiation characteristics of a BSS produced during the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from VVER-1000 reactors based on a method developed by JSC Radium Institute named after V. G. Khlopin.

Ellen Gleditsch: Woman Chemist in IUPAC’s Early History

In 1907, a 28-year-old Norwegian pharmacist-chemist arrived in Paris to work with Marie Curie at the Radium Institute. Like many women at the time, Ellen Gleditsch was attracted to the newly discovered phenomenon of radioactivity and wished take part in exciting scientific endeavour. Working with the Nobel Laureate Marie Curie was a unique opportunity for the ambitious young chemist, whose skills in mineral analyses led to her being accepted into the otherwise fully staffed laboratory. By all accounts, Ellen Gleditsch appears to have been one of the first women associated with IUPAC. In 1921 she was the Norwegian representative of the committee working on the Tables Annuelles de Constantes et Données Numériques de Chimie, de Physique et de Technologie [1], published under the auspices of IUPAC with the agreement of the International Research Council. In the following year she was a member of the Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry during its meeting in Lyon [2]. In 1947 Gleditsch became a full member of the Joint Commission of Standards and Units of Radioactivity, joining her friends Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie in this capacity, and all three continued to be members until the Commission’s dissolution in 1955 [3]. IUPAC was the mother union of this Joint Commission, and directly linked with International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).

140-th anniversary of the birth of the first in Russia head of the department of surgery, a well-known radiobiologist, geneticist and oncologist, Professor Nadezhda Alekseevna Dobrovolskaya (on the 100th anniversary of the Voronezh State medical university)

Dobrovol'skaya Nadezhda was born in 1878 in Kiev province. After graduating with a gold medal of the women's gymnasium in Kiev Women's medical Institute in Petrograd, worked as an Intern in the clinic of Professor M. S. Subbotin (1902-1904), later a country doctor . 1907 – the assistant to the dissector, assistant Professor of Women's medical Institute (until 1917), supernumeraries medical surgical Academy in Petrograd (from 1914). Since 1911 – a doctor of medicine. In 1912 N.. A. suggested method of joining vessels of different diameter, "end-to-end" crossing them obliquely; I applied the hair to perform a vascular suture. 24 APR 1917 N..Dobrovolskaya apply in Tartu University about acceptance as a privatdozent at the Department of surgery. 14 Oct 1918 – the Board of the University of Voronezh electing her to the chair of surgical pathology with the dressing and the doctrine about dislocations and fractures of the medical faculty and became the first woman to lead the Department of surgery. In 1919, she described the symptom that got her name – a decrease in heart rate when Paltseva the compression of the artery proximal to arteriovenous fistula. To link their fate with the Soviet authorities she did not dare, and soon left Voronezh. N.. Dobrovolskaya served as a doctor in Wrangel's army, which retreated in the Crimea and were evacuated to Egypt (1920-1922). In 1921 N.. Take the art to the newly opened in France, the laboratory organised by the Pasteur Institute and the radium Institute (later, the Institute Curie), which was first headed by Professor Claude REGO, and then N.. Dobrovolskaya. It describes the brachyury mutation in mice is becoming one of the pioneers in understanding the development of the body as changes in gene expression, creates several pure lines of mice as models of human diseases. Nadezhda was a member of the boards of the society of Russian doctors of Mechnikov, Russian academic group, Russian section of the International Federation of University women, Association of Russian doctors abroad. Collaborated in the Brotherhood of the Martyr Albania and St. Sergius. N.. Dobrovolska has authored over one hundred scientific papers. In 1937 she was awarded the French Academy of Sciences for research in the field of hereditary cancer. In 1954, at the age of 76 N..Dobrovolskaya is dead.