the first to remove cancer from the rectum.

Theodore Billroth, you know, was the first to remove cancer from the rectum, not just the stomach.

On January 29, 1881, after many ill-fated attempts, Billroth performed the first successful resection for antral carcinoma on Therese Heller, who lived for almost 4 months and died of liver metastases. He accomplished this operation by closing the greater curvature side of the stomach and anatomizing the lesser curvature to the duodenum, in an operation that is still known as the Billroth I to this day.

Book by Arnold van de Laar