Henry Kaplan (doctor)

Henry Seymour Kaplan MD ( born April 24, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois; † 4 February 1984 in Palo Alto at San Francisco) was an American radiologist, the fundamental insights in radiotherapy and radiobiology won.

At Stanford University Medical Center Stanford University in San Francisco, he invented together with Edward Ginzton the first linear accelerator for medical purposes in the Western Hemisphere. 6- MV device was first used in 1955, six months after a similar apparatus was used in England for the first time. The focus of Kaplan's work was actually in the treatment of cancers, including on the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma, which was usually fatal before use of radiotherapy.

The first patient treated by him with the help of the linear accelerator was Gordon Isaacs, who was diagnosed with retinoblastoma in his right eye, which also threatened his left eye. The patient grew after treatment healed and can see on his left eye normal.

Life

Kaplan grew up in Chicago and became interested in his own words in oncology, after his father had died of lung cancer. The Non smoking Kaplan later died of the same disease as his father. Kaplan graduated from the University of Chicago and graduated at the age of 22 years of success as MD at Rush Medical College in Chicago from. He then worked at the University of Minnesota and Yale University, where he began, most recently as Assistant Professor to teach radiology. He then moved for a year at the National Cancer Institute and then took over at the age of 30, a professorship and the management of which has only existed for two persons department of radiology at Stanford. Throughout his 36 - year tenure there, of which the first 24 as head of the radiology at Stanford has been significantly strengthened and staffed, and the research was expanded. This was achieved mainly through greater integration of clinical research and training organization in the university landscape in Palo Alto.

In cancer biology, he won in 1959 along with Miriam Lieberman the realization that leukemia and cancer of the lymphatic system in mice are activated by a virus, if the normal function of the animal's immune system has been suppressed by radiation or chemical action. In 1975, he was able to summarize this research in an opened specifically for this purpose research laboratory for cancer biology.

Kaplan realized beams could be used on the one hand and on the other for the diagnosis and for the treatment of diseases. 1960 to the time in which he belonged to the National Cancer Advisory Council, 120 radiation therapists were employed in the United States and 12 were in training. He worked on a better and specialized training back and was involved in the founding of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology. In the mid-1980s consisted of about 2000 radiotherapists this professional society, of which more than half had been trained as a radiation therapist and certified in this branch. In addition, he also advised the Yarborough Committee, which drew up in 1974 for the Congress of the National Cancer Act. He demanded that the government should promote cancer research.

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

Kaplan was married in 1942, his wife Leah Hope Lebenson also worked at Stanford, the couple has a son Paul and a daughter Ann Spears.

Honours (excerpt)

In 1965 he was admitted as knight in the Legion of Honour, in 1982 he was an officer of the Legion of Honour. 1966 to 1967 he was president of the American Association for Cancer Research. He was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1968. On 14 May 1969 he became the first physician along with five other winners with the Atoms for Peace Award. He was also the first radiologist, who was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences of the United States in 1972. In 1979 he was awarded the inaugural Charles F. Kettering Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation. To his honor, a Department of Cancer Biology was called by his name at Stanford University.

He was a member of the Boards of Governors of the newly established Ben- Gurion University in Beersheba and the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. In addition, he sat in the scientific advisory board of the Sharett Institute for Cancer Research at Hadassah En Kerem Hospital at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Swell

  • Lawrence K. Altman: Dr. Henry Kaplan, cancer -fighter, is dead. Obituary in the New York Times, 6 February 1984 ( English)
  • Malcolm A. Bagshaw, Henry E. Jones, Robert F. Kallman, Joseph P. Kriss: Memorial Resolution Henry S. Kaplan (1918 - 1984). Stanford Historical Society, seen December 7, 2009 (PDF, English, 25 kB)
  • Radiologist
  • Oncologist
  • Radio biologist
  • University teachers (Stanford )
  • University teachers ( Yale )
  • Physician ( 20th century )
  • Carrier of the Atoms for Peace Award
  • Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States
  • Member of the Académie des sciences
  • Member of the Legion of Honour ( Officer )
  • Americans
  • Born in 1918
  • Died in 1984
  • Man
Palo Alto, California Rush University Weizmann Institute of Science Name Authority File
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