Henri François Le Dran

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Henri François Le Dran (October 13, 1685 - October 17, 1770) was a French surgeon. He gave lectures with the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris, and practiced surgery at Hôpital de la Charité. He is remembered for his work with surgeon Jean-Louis Petit (1674-1750), and one of his more famous students was Swiss anatomist Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777).

Le Dran is remembered for his pioneer research of cancer, and his work regarding military surgery. He was the first physician to realize that cancer was a local affliction, and not a systemic malady. He postulated that cancer progressed in stages, and that it began as a local disease of an organ. He advocated surgery for cancer before the tumor was allowed to metastasize through the lymphatic system and affect other parts of the body.

From his experience with gunshot wounds in battle, he did early research of shock, which he described as a collapse of vital functions, and as a "rude unhinging of the machinery of life". Le Dran also made important contributions involving mastectomy and lithotomy operations. His best known written work is a 1749 surgical treatise called Traité des opérations de chirurgie.