Saul Hertz
Encyclopedia
Saul Hertz, M.D. was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 who discovered the use of radioactive iodine for the treatment of thyroid disease
Thyroid disease
-Hyper- and hypofunction:Imbalance in production of thyroid hormones arises from dysfunction of the thyroid gland itself, the pituitary gland, which produces thyroid-stimulating hormone , or the hypothalamus, which regulates the pituitary gland via thyrotropin-releasing hormone . Concentrations of...

.

Early life and education

Hertz was born on April 20, 1905, to Aaron Daniel (A.D.) Hertz and Bertha Hertz in Cleveland, Ohio. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Europe who raised their seven boys according to Orthodox traditions. His father was a successful real estate developer. He attended public school, and then graduated from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 with Phi Beta Kappa honors. He received his M.D from Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....

  in 1929, and performed his internship and residency at Cleveland's Mount Sinai Hospital.

Early studies with radioactive Iodine

Hertz joined the Thyroid Clinic and Metabolism Laboratories at Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...

 in 1931.

Hertz served as Chief of the Thyroid Clinic from 1931-1943. In 1936, he asked Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 president Karl Compton, “Could iodine be made artificially radioactive?” Compton responded in a letter to Dr. Hertz on December 15, 1936, describing radioactive iodine.

In 1937, in collaboration with the physicist Arthur Roberts
Arthur Roberts (physicist)
Arthur Roberts was a physicist and a composer.He is remembered for several humoristic and satirical songs on scientific subjects, which he sung to piano accompaniment.-Songs:His best-known songs are preserved in a 78rpm vinyl record made in 1947...

 of MIT, he began studies in rabbits to evaluate the effects of I-128 produced in very small quantities by neutron bombardment on the thyroid. The experiment involving 48 rabbits demonstrated the tracer capabilities of radioactive iodine and its effects on the thyroid gland. The studies showed that the hyperplastic thyroid gland absorbed more of the radioactive substance than the normal gland. This proved the tracer qualities of the radioactive substance. The tracer procedure was critical for determining the amount of iodine the human thyroid took up so that a calculation of the dosage of radioactive iodine could be calibrated for treatment.

Human treatment with radioactive iodine

Human studies required a better source of the radioactive Iodine. The building of the cyclotron
Cyclotron
In technology, a cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator. In physics, the cyclotron frequency or gyrofrequency is the frequency of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to the direction of a uniform magnetic field, i.e. a magnetic field of constant magnitude and direction...

 at MIT was funded for $30,000 by the Mary Markle Foundation of New York City in 1938. The construction project that was completed two years later in 1940. During those two years, the experiments with rabbits continued.

In January 1941, Hertz administered cyclotron
Cyclotron
In technology, a cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator. In physics, the cyclotron frequency or gyrofrequency is the frequency of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to the direction of a uniform magnetic field, i.e. a magnetic field of constant magnitude and direction...

 produced a I-130 - I-131 mixture as a therapeutic dose to the first human patient at MGH, to a patient with Graves’ hypothyroidism, or Graves' disease
Graves' disease
Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease where the thyroid is overactive, producing an excessive amount of thyroid hormones...

. This was the first successful treatment of humans with an artificially produced radioactive material.

Gradually a series of 29 patients were treated and documented. The Journal of the American Medical Association
Journal of the American Medical Association
The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly, peer-reviewed, medical journal, published by the American Medical Association. Beginning in July 2011, the editor in chief will be Howard C. Bauchner, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, replacing ...

 published “Radioactive Iodine in the Study of Thyroid Physiology”, May 1946. This article was a five year follow up study of the 29 patients and documented the successful treatment and safety of radioactive iodine for the treatment of hyperthyroidism
Hyperthyroidism
Hyperthyroidism is the term for overactive tissue within the thyroid gland causing an overproduction of thyroid hormones . Hyperthyroidism is thus a cause of thyrotoxicosis, the clinical condition of increased thyroid hormones in the blood. Hyperthyroidism and thyrotoxicosis are not synonymous...

. The follow-up study firmly launched the use of radioactive iodine therapy as a standard treatment for Graves’ disease.

World War II

In 1943, Hertz joined the Navy Medical Corps. He was part of the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

 for Biology and Medicine in furthering medical uses of atomic energy. He served as a Commander and continued his service in the Naval Reserves.

Nuclear fission products in cancer treatment

As the interest in atomic energy for peaceful purposes was heightened, after the explosion of the atomic bomb, Hertz established the Radioactive Isotope Research Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1946. Its purpose was to apply fission products to the treatment of thyroid cancer
Thyroid cancer
Thyroid neoplasm is a neoplasm or tumor of the thyroid. It can be a benign tumor such as thyroid adenoma, or it can be a malignant neoplasm , such as papillary, follicular, medullary or anaplastic thyroid cancer. Most patients are 25 to 65 years of age when first diagnosed; women are more affected...

, goiter, and other malignant growths. He worked with the government to centralize an agency to handle the distribution of radioactive isotopes for use by private enterprises working on approved projects. He made extensive studies of radioactive iodine in the treatment of thyroid cancer
Thyroid cancer
Thyroid neoplasm is a neoplasm or tumor of the thyroid. It can be a benign tumor such as thyroid adenoma, or it can be a malignant neoplasm , such as papillary, follicular, medullary or anaplastic thyroid cancer. Most patients are 25 to 65 years of age when first diagnosed; women are more affected...

 as well as in the production of total thyroidectomy in the treatment of certain cases of heart disease
Heart disease
Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...

. Hertz studied the application of radioactive phosphorus
Phosphorus
Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus as a mineral is almost always present in its maximally oxidized state, as inorganic phosphate rocks...

 and the influences of hormones on cancer as displayed by isotope studies.

Later career and influence

Hertz wrote over 50 scientific publications dealing mainly with topics in thyroid physiology, its disease and treatment. He influenced the development of nuclear medicine through his research and instruction at both Harvard and MIT. He was an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard University from 1946 - 1950. His teaching included an attachment to the Nuclear Physics Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1939 - 1950.

The development of radioactive iodine in the treatment of thyroid disease
Thyroid disease
-Hyper- and hypofunction:Imbalance in production of thyroid hormones arises from dysfunction of the thyroid gland itself, the pituitary gland, which produces thyroid-stimulating hormone , or the hypothalamus, which regulates the pituitary gland via thyrotropin-releasing hormone . Concentrations of...

 is the cornerstone on which nuclear medicine
Nuclear medicine
In nuclear medicine procedures, elemental radionuclides are combined with other elements to form chemical compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical compounds, to form radiopharmaceuticals. These radiopharmaceuticals, once administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs...

 was built.Barbara Bush
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush is the wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of the 43rd President George W. Bush and of the 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush...

, who was successfully treated, wrote to Vitta Hertz, his widow, “It is comforting to know that so many people are well because of the scientific expertise of people like Dr. Hertz.”

Selected honors

  • Dalton Scholar - Massachusetts General Hospital - 1931 - 1933
  • Henry Pickering Wolcott Fellow - Harvard Medical School - 1935 - 1937
  • Key to Science/Sigma XI - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Scientific Society) - 1940
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