Victor Despeignes (14 February 1866 – 30 July 1937 ) was a pioneer in

radiation oncology Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radia ...

. He was possibly the first person to use

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

s to treat cancer, which he did in July 1896 for a patient with stomach cancer. He was also the first physician to publish a paper on

radiation therapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radi ...

, in 1896, dealing with that case. This attempt was less than a year after the publication of the discovery of X-rays by

Wilhelm Röntgen Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (; ; 27 March 184510 February 1923) was a German mechanical engineer and physicist, who, on 8 November 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays or Röntgen rays, an achie ...

Personal life

François Victor Despeignes was born in Lyon in 1866. He was buried at the cemetery in a small village in the Drôme Provençale called Vinsobres.

Cancer treatment

Researchers had already discovered that X-rays could kill bacteria by 1896. The predominant theory at the time was that cancer was some kind of parasitic infection.

Louis Charles Émile Lortet Louis Charles Émile Lortet (22 August 1836 – 26 December 1909) was a French physician, botanist, zoologist and Egyptologist who was a native of Oullins. He earned his medical doctorate in 1861, and his degree in natural sciences in 1867. He ...

and Philibert Jean Victor Genoud tried to kill tuberculosis in infected guinea pigs using X-rays from March to June 1896 in the same city of Lyon. A 52-year-old man with an

epigastric In anatomy, the epigastrium (or epigastric region) is the upper central region of the abdomen. It is located between the costal margins and the subcostal plane. Pain may be referred to the epigastrium from damage to structures derived from the f ...

tumor presented to Despeignes. The tumor was about the size of the head of an eight-month-old fetus. Despeignes believed that cancer was caused by parasites, and that perhaps he could kill the parasite with radiation. On 4 July 1896 he commenced the X-ray treatments. Two half-hour treatments were given each day. Other treatments given to the patient were opium for pain relief, morphine and chloroform. A diet of condurango and milk was prescribed, with injections of artificial serum. The patient experienced pain relief, but died on 24 July. The cancer had shrunk by about 50%. Despeignes' equipment consisted of a Crookes' tube and six Radiguet battery elements. Inspired by this, other physicians tried using X-rays to treat numerous human ailments from acne to breast cancer. Malignancies were found to be the most amenable to X-ray treatment. They also found out the side effects.

Other work

Between 1866 and 1894, Despeignes worked as a hygienist physician in Lyon. He researched the quality of tap water and tuberculosis. He became the chief of the laboratory of Louis Pasteur in 1892. Between 1907 and 1937 he was the director of town hygiene in

Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chamb ...

Works

*"Nouveau régulateur pour étuve chauffée au pétrole" (New regulator for oven heated oil) Association Typographique, 1890 *"A propos de la question des eaux de Lyon" (Concerning Lyon's waters) Association Typographique, Lyon, 1891 * *"Deux cas de kyste hydatique" (Τwo cases of hydatid cysts) 1903 with Ph. Genoud

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Despeignes, Victor French radiologists 1866 births Physicians from Lyon 1937 deaths French oncologists