History of radiotherapy in Turkey.

The discovery of riintgen rays on November 8, 1895, by the German phycisist Wilhelm Conrad Riintgen not only resulted in tremendous enthusiasm during his day but also in the invention of sophisticated diagnostic and treatment machines, which are in use today. In Turkey, two scientists caught the enthusiasm of the first days: Dr. Esat Fevzi and Dr. Mehmet Rifat Osman. Dr. Esat Fevzi (1874-1901) was a student of the Military School of Medicine and worked in the physics laboratory of the same school. When he saw the article of Prof. Dr. C. M. Gariel published in France on January 29, 1896, titled “Les recherches du proriintgen et la photographie a travers les corps opaques,” he went to the chemistry lab and found Profs. Vasil Naun and Ali Riza to say that ‘ ‘in our lab there is Crookes tube and Ruhmkorff coil; if you could give a strong electric battery we may construct this riintgen machine.” They obtained permission to get the necessary equipment and to construct the machine. A few days later they were able to shoot the handgraphy of another medical student, Akil Muhtar ijzden, in the physics lab (3). Another medical student, Dr. Rifat Osman, was helping the others and taking photographs (2). This event caused great enthusiasm and gratitude in Istanbul Gulhane Hospital. Esat Fevzi and Osman Rifat made renovations in the machine and were able to carry it to Yildiz Hospital, with permission of Cemil Topuzlu Pasha, the director of the hospital. They first took the graphy of a soldier wounded in the Turkish-Greek war and showed a bullet in his wound (3). Photographs of this graphy and Dr. Esat Fevzi are shown in Figs. 1 and 2. X-rays in the treatment of cancer was first used by Despeisner (April 1986) in a gastric cancer, but no result was obtained. A few months later, a brain and a uterine malignancy Dr. Cemil Topuzlu in Yildiz Hospital tried to treat and, again, no palation was obtained (3, 7-8). Dr. Esat Fevzi graduated from medical school in 1987 as a captain physician, worked for 3 years in Yildiz Hospital as a diagnostician, wrote a book, and died in 1901 from erysipelas. The first rijntgen machine constructed in Turkey by Dr. Esat Fevzi was later placed in the Biological Sciences Museum of the Medical School. Second machine: in 1899, a machine was brought from Germany and installed in the school where Dr. Esat Fevzi worked, and it was used by Dr. Rifat Emin. Third machine: German Red Cross donated it and it was used under the directory of Dr. Kuttner. Fourth machine: in 1899, a new machine was brought to the Gulhane Hospital and was used by Drs. Deyehe and Dr. Rifat Osman. Fifth machine: It was brought in 1900 to the Haydarpasha Military Hospital and used by military physician Dr. Kemal. Two more machines were brought in 1902 and 1904 and used in Istanbul. In the Journal of Sisli Childrens (Etfal) Hospital, published in 1904, Volume V, Dr. Rasih Emin states that “RGntgen rays for treatment is first used by Colonel Dr. Cemil Topuzlu in Turkey in 19 patients and results were reported in 7 of them (December 10, 1903).” In a later publication Dr. Rasih Emin states that more patients were treated by this method and results of 18 patients were reported (7). The responses obtained in these patients are shown in Table 1. Case reports of 2 of these patients will be presented here for their interesting aspects.