Precedence for prostate brachytherapy

Abstract 

Purpose

To identify the earliest practitioners of prostate brachytherapy.

Methods and Materials

Review of contemporary literature.

Results

Radiotherapy has been used for benign prostatic ailments as early as 1902. Prostate cancer was first treated by teletherapy in 1904. Several urologists, in Paris and Vienna, applied intracavitary radium for prostate disease in 1908–1909. We present evidence that Henri Minet was the first to perform prostate brachytherapy, as early as 1908.

Conclusion

Brachytherapy has been used to treat prostate cancer for more than a century.

Keywords: Prostatic neoplasms, Brachytherapy, Radium, History of Medicine, Ernest Desnos, Henri Minet, Octave Pasteau, Paul Degrais, Rudolf Paschkis, Ludwig Moszkowicz, Otto Zuckerkandl