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Updated: Mar 13, 2026

Proton Therapy Delivery and Its Clinical Application in Select Solid Tumor Malignancies
Published on: February 6, 2019
[1896: How nascent radiotherapy gathered Roentgen, Pasteur and the Lumière brothers]
1Inserm UMR 1052, bâtiment Cheney-A, rue Laennec, 69008 Lyon, France; Groupe de radiobiologie, centre de recherche en cancérologie de Lyon, bâtiment Cheney-A, rue Laennec, 69008 Lyon, France.
Abstract:
On the 4th July, 1896, in his medical office of Les Échelles (Savoie, France), Victor Despeignes performed the very first radiotherapy against cancer, documented by indisputable proofs. However, the intellectual and practical approach that leads to this first radiotherapy may appear unexpected to date. Indeed, it is likely that the treatment that Despeignes applied to his neighbour, who did not suffer from stomach cancer, was born with the indirect support of the Lumière brothers, on the basis of a biological theory (the parasitory theory of cancer) that is irrelevant today, with an experimental protocol based on experiments performed on tuberculosis et in a bifractionated model linked by the constraints of a district medical doctor.
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