Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy treats disease, chiefly cancer, using ionizing radiation to damage the DNA of targeted cells. It followed directly from Wilhelm Rontgen's discovery of X-rays in November 1895. French physician Victor Despeignes made the first recorded attempt at therapeutic use in 1896, treating a patient's stomach cancer with inconclusive results, and Austrian physician Leopold Freund achieved the first widely documented success treating a skin condition around 1897; within a few years scientific journals were reporting successful treatment of skin malignancies with X-rays, though early practitioners understood little about safe dosage and many suffered radiation injuries themselves. This atlas describes the history of the treatment and is not medical advice.