Precedence for prostate brachytherapy.
OBJECTIVE
To identify the earliest practitioners of prostate brachytherapy.


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
Brachytherapy has been used to treat prostate cancer for more than a century.
Aronowitz
Jesse N
JN
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA. Jesse.Arnowitz@umassmemorial.org
Grimard
Laval
L
Robison
Roger
R
D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000266:history*; D005060:Europe; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000266:history* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D018787:Radiation Oncology / Q000266:history*