Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2021 Jan;22(1):4-10. doi: 10.1002/acm2.13175.
March 2021 will mark the eightieth anniversary of targeted radionuclide therapy, recognizing the first use of radioactive iodine to treat thyroid disease by Dr. Saul Hertz on March 31, 1941. The breakthrough of Dr. Hertz and collaborator physicist Arthur Roberts was made possible by rapid developments in the fields of physics and medicine in the early twentieth century. Although diseases of the thyroid gland had been described for centuries, the role of iodine in thyroid physiology had been elucidated only in the prior few decades. After the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1897, rapid advancements in the field, including artificial production of radioactive isotopes, were made in the subsequent decades. Finally, the diagnostic and therapeutic use of radioactive iodine was based on the tracer principal that was developed by George de Hevesy. In the context of these advancements, Hertz was able to conceive the potential of using of radioactive iodine to treat thyroid diseases. Working with Dr. Roberts, he obtained the experimental data and implemented it in the clinical setting. Radioiodine therapy continues to be a mainstay of therapy for hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer. However, Hertz struggled to gain recognition for his accomplishments and to continue his work and, with his early death in 1950, his contributions have often been overlooked until recently. The work of Hertz and others provided a foundation for the introduction of other radionuclide therapies and for the development of the concept of theranostics.
2021 年 3 月将标志着靶向放射性核素治疗的 80 周年，这是纪念 Saul Hertz 博士于 1941 年 3 月 31 日首次使用放射性碘治疗甲状腺疾病。Hertz 博士和物理学家 Arthur Roberts 的突破是由 20 世纪初物理学和医学领域的快速发展所带来的。尽管甲状腺疾病已经被描述了几个世纪，但碘在甲状腺生理学中的作用直到几十年前才被阐明。在 Henri Becquerel 于 1897 年发现放射性之后，该领域取得了快速进展，包括放射性同位素的人工生产。最终，放射性碘的诊断和治疗是基于 George de Hevesy 发展的示踪原理。在这些进展的背景下，Hertz 能够设想使用放射性碘治疗甲状腺疾病的潜力。他与 Roberts 博士合作，获得了实验数据并将其应用于临床环境。放射性碘治疗仍然是治疗甲状腺功能亢进症和甲状腺癌的主要方法。然而，Hertz 努力为自己的成就获得认可，并继续他的工作，但他于 1950 年早逝，他的贡献直到最近才经常被忽视。Hertz 和其他人的工作为引入其他放射性核素治疗和治疗诊断学概念奠定了基础。
