Dr. Saul Hertz (4/20/1905-7/28/1950) and radioactive iodine therapy
Submitted by Evan Graber, DO
Based on studies that demonstrated that the thyroid takes up iodine, Hertz created radioactive isotopes of iodine and used them for thyroid diseases. He, along with Arthur Roberts, treated 48 hyperthyroid rabbits with I-128 and demonstrated increased thyroid uptake compared to normal rabbits (Endocrinology 1941; 29:81-88). In 1941 artificially-produced I-131 was administered to the first human. A clinical trial of 29 patients demonstrated thyroid iodine uptake in patients with Graves’ disease (J Clin Invest 1942; 21:25-29). After serving in the Navy during WWII, Hertz returned to study thyroid cancer and developed dosimetry techniques for the appropriate quantity of RAI for each patient. In 1949 he established the first Nuclear Medicine Department in the country at the Massachusetts General Hospital.