title: Development of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center gynecologic applicators for the treatment of cervical cancer: historical analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To provide historical background on the development and initial studies of the gynecological (gyn) applicators developed by Dr. Gilbert H. Fletcher, a radiation oncologist and chairperson from 1948 to 1981 of the department at the M.D. Anderson Hospital (MDAH) for Cancer Research in Houston, TX, and to acknowledge the previously unrecognized contribution that Dr. Leonard G. Grimmett, a radiation physicist and chairperson from 1949 to 1951 of the physics department at MDAH, made to the development of the gynecological applicators.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed archival materials from the Historical Resource Center and from the Department of Radiation Physics at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, as well as contemporary published papers, to trace the history of the applicators.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dr. Fletcher's work was influenced by the work on gynecologic applicators in the 1940s in Europe, especially work done at the Royal Cancer Hospital in London. Those efforts influenced not only Dr. Fletcher's approach to the design of the applicators but also the methods used to perform in vivo measurements and determine the dose distribution. Much of the initial development of the dosimetry techniques and measurements at MDAH were carried out by Dr. Grimmett.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390-9183, USA. john.yordy@utsouthwestern.edu
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Yordy
authors.forename: Peter R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Almond
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Delclos
mesh_terms: D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation; D002173:Cancer Care Facilities / Q000266:history*; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000266:history; D005260:Female; D006176:Gynecology / Q000266:history / Q000295:instrumentation; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D013781:Texas; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000266:history* / Q000532:radiotherapy