50 YEARS AGO

New technology at Albany Med

Albany Medical Center Hospital was installing the first linear accelerator in the area for treatment of tumors and expected to start treating patients this month. The $230,000 device (about $1.5 million today), had been purchased from Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto, Calif., trucked to Albany and installed by its technicians. It generated X-rays by electronic means and represented medical science’s latest advance in the radiation treatment of tumors. Dr. John F. Roach, chief of radiology at Albany Med, said the linear accelerator projected better defined and higher quality X-ray beams than the cobalt machine, making treatment safer and more reliable. A hospital spokesman said the number of patients seeking cobalt treatment for tumors, about 600 a year, was expected to increase with the new therapy.

—Times Union, Feb. 6, 1972