Henry S. Kaplan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Kaplan in the 1950s with an early model of the linear accelerator developed for radiation treatment in cancer therapy. The safety cover of the device was removed for the photo, the electronics of the 6-MV device can be seen inside the device.
Gordon Isaacs, the first patient to be treated for a retinoblastoma in 1957 with a linear accelerator used in radiation therapy. His right eye was removed on January 11, 1957 because it had cancer. His left eye showed only a local tumor, which prompted Henry Kaplan to attempt treatment with the electron beam. Gordon now lives on East Bay and can see normally in the left eye.

Henry Seymour Kaplan MD (born April 24, 1918 in Chicago , Illinois , † February 4, 1984 in Palo Alto near San Francisco ) was an American radiologist who gained fundamental knowledge in radiation therapy and radiobiology .

At Stanford University Medical Center of Stanford University in San Francisco, he invented along with Edward Ginzton the first linear accelerator for medical use in the Western Hemisphere . The 6 MV device was first used in 1955, six months after a similar device was first used in England. The main focus of Kaplan's work was actually the treatment of cancer, including the treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma , which was usually fatal prior to the use of radiation therapy.

The first patient he treated with the aid of the linear accelerator was Gordon Isaacs, who had a retinoblastoma in his right eye, which also threatened his left eye. The patient grew up cured after the treatment and can see normally in his left eye.

Life

Kaplan grew up in Chicago and, by his own admission , took an interest in oncology after his father died of lung cancer . The non-smoker chaplain later died of the same illness as his father. Kaplan graduated from the University of Chicago and graduated with an MD from Rush Medical College in Chicago at the age of 22 . He then worked at the University of Minnesota and Yale University , where he began to teach radiology, most recently as an assistant professor. He then moved to the National Cancer Institute for a year and then, at the age of 30, took on a professorship and headed the two-person Radiology Department at Stanford. In the course of his 36 years of activity there, including the first 24 as head of the department, the radiology department at Stanford has been significantly strengthened in terms of technology and personnel, and research has also been expanded. This was essentially achieved through greater integration of clinical research and training operations into the university landscape in Palo Alto.

In cancer biology, he and Miriam Lieberman discovered in 1959 that leukemia and cancer of the lymphatic system in mice are activated by a virus when the normal function of the animal's immune system is suppressed by radiation or chemical effects. In 1975 he was able to summarize this research in a research laboratory for cancer biology that was opened especially for this purpose.

Kaplan realized that rays could be used on the one hand for diagnosis and on the other hand to treat diseases. In 1960, when he was on the National Cancer Advisory Council , there were 120 radiation therapists in the United States and 12 in training. He worked towards better and more specialized education and helped found the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology . In the mid-1980s, around 2,000 radiation therapists belonged to this professional society, more than half of whom had been trained as radiation therapists and certified in this branch. He also advised the Yarborough Committee , which drafted the National Cancer Act for Congress in 1974 . He called for the government to promote cancer research.

Kaplan has written several books on heart disease in newborns, Hodgkin's lymphoma and cancers of the lymphatic system.

Kaplan had been married since 1942, his wife Leah Hope Lebenson also worked at Stanford, the couple have a son Paul and a daughter Ann Spears.

Honors (excerpt)

In 1965 he was accepted as a knight in the Legion of Honor , and since 1982 he has been an officer of the Legion of Honor. From 1966 to 1967 he was president of the American Association for Cancer Research . In 1968 he was accepted as a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . On May 14, 1969, he was the first doctor to receive the Atoms for Peace Award , along with five other winners . He was also the first radiologist to be inducted into the United States' National Academy of Sciences in 1972 . In 1979 he was awarded the first Charles F. Kettering Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation. On March 23, 1981 he was accepted as a foreign member of the Académie des Sciences . In his honor, a chair in cancer biology was named at Stanford University.

He was a member of the Boards of Governors of the newly founded Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheba and that of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. He also served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Sharett Institute for Cancer Research at Hadassah En Kerem Hospital at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter K. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 4, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Kaplan, Henry S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kaplan, Henry Seymour (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American radiologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH 4th February 1984
Place of death Palo Alto near San Francisco