International Journal of
Radiation Oncology biology
physics
www.redjournal.org
OBITUARY
Tribute to Professor Maurice Tubiana Franc¸ois Eschwege, MD, PhD,* Eric Deutsch, MD, PhD,*,y and Sarah S. Donaldson, MDz *Radiation Oncology Department; yMolecular Radiotherapy Laboratory INSERM1030, Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus, Paris-Sud University, Villejuif, France; and zDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, and Radiation Oncology Service Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford, California Received Nov 13, 2013. Accepted for publication Nov 15, 2013.
Professor Maurice Tubiana passed away on September 24, 2013 at the age of 93, after a long and productive life of service to medicine and his country. No one would have imagined, when reading his most recent scientific articles over the past several years, that he was more than 90 years of age. Maurice Tubiana was an extraordinary man. Reprint requests to: Eric Deutsch, MD, PhD, Professor of Oncology Radiation Therapy, Gustave Roussy Institute, Villejuif France Paris-Sud
Int J Radiation Oncol Biol Phys, Vol. 88, No. 3, pp. 755e756, 2014 0360-3016/$ - see front matter Ó 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2013.11.224
Born in Constantine, Algeria, in 1920, his childhood and adolescence were deeply affected by the death of a handicapped brother and then of his mother, when he was just 17 years old. After high school in Algiers, he left for Paris to study medicine. However, his studies were interrupted by World War II and the antiSemitic laws of the Vichy government. He made his way to Spain on foot, but was arrested and imprisoned; he then managed to return to Algeria to join the Free French Forces. Tubiana fought in the Tunisia campaign, then in Italy, where he served in the battle at Monte Cassino as a medic in the front lines with the Tirailleurs Alge´riens (Algerian light infantry). He was wounded in action in Provence in 1944 and later named Chevalier de la Le´gion d’Honneur for his military valor; he received the highest French military distinction, the Croix de Guerre. Tubiana returned to Paris to finish his medical studies and earned doctorate degrees in medicine in 1945 and in physics in 1947. His 2 mentors, Robert Debre´ and Fre´de´ric Joliot-Curie, enabled him to study and work at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California. This American experience had a lasting impact on his life and professional development. In 1952, Tubiana joined the Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France, as Professor of Medical Physics. It was here that Pierre Denoix invited him to “build a department with collaboration between research and clinical medicine.” Tubiana became Head of the Betatron and Isotopes Laboratory and worked with a young team of exceptionally talented investigators, including Bernard Pierquin, Jean and Andre´e Dutreix, and Claude Lalanne, to create a new approach to radiation therapy based on an alliance and partnership between clinical medicine, physics, and radiobiology. This group became the Department of Radiation Therapy, and was soon joined by Sauveur Abbatucci and later by Daniel Chassagne, Alain Laugier, and Claude Parmentier. In the years following, Michel Schlienger, Franc¸ois Eschwege, Alain Gerbaulet, Jean-Paul Le Bourgeois, Pierre Wibault, Jean Chavaudra, Alain Daban, Olivier Le Floch, J.P. Olivier, University, 94805 Villejuif, France. Tel: þ33 142114931; E-mail: eric. [email protected] Conflict of interest: none.
756
Eschwege et al.
Jean-Marc Cosset, Rodrigo Arriagada, and many others became part of this exciting team. Very few individuals have played such an important role as Maurice Tubiana in the development of our specialty. Among his technical contributions, he is credited for pioneering the use of megavoltage units, standardizing radiation therapy techniques, and creating radiation physics quality assurance programs. Tubiana also was a major contributor to the development of therapeutic multimodality standards for the management of patients with lymphoma. He developed treatment protocols for patients with Hodgkin disease in accordance with specific prognostic factors. Being trained both as a doctor of medicine and of physics, Tubiana also pioneered novel treatment approaches for patients with thyroid cancer, using both external beam radiation as well as radioiodine treatment. While continuing his clinical investigations in lymphoma and thyroid cancer, Tubiana simultaneously took on many other responsibilities, including Director of the Institut de Recherche de Radiobiologie Clinique of Inserm, and Director of the Institut Gustave Roussy from 1982 to 1988. He served as consultant to the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency, founded the International Agency for the Research on Cancer, and chaired the European Committee of Cancer Experts. Tubiana helped to build consensus in cancer management policies and strongly influenced the scientific community by using a model of intregrated research. His scientific background and his vision of the integration of researchers within his cancer hospital, the Institut Gustave Roussy, were unique at that time. Along with other talented clinician scientists in physics and clinical radiation therapy, he also strongly influenced the field of radiobiology, by describing the concepts of potentially lethal damage repair and relative biological effectiveness. Through this, and with the work of Edmond Malaise and Emilia Frindel, Tubiana published more than 350 scientific publications. He had an extraordinary visionary spirit, which motivated him to computerize the Institut Gustave Roussy patient records as long ago as 1970. Despite the enormous expense, he believed that computerized records were fundamental for clinical research and he was involved in the implementation of paperless dosimetry, which he developed with Prof Andre´e Dutreix. In essence, Tubiana was one of the first to advocate and practice translational cancer research. Tubiana’s widespread involvement in French, European, and international leadership continued throughout his lifetime. He was a founding member of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the International Society for Radiation Oncology, and was an early founder of the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology, along with Emmanuel Van der Schueren and others. He also served as a member of the Acade´mie des Sciences and president of the Acade´mie de Me´decine. He was extremely dedicated to the field and always kept up with the most recent new scientific reports, which he often read before others.
International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics Tubiana’s international recognition attracted visitors and trainees from all parts of the globe who aspired to learn from him and his extraordinary team at the Institut Gustave Roussy. Among them were radiation oncologists from America, including Jim Cox, Bob Kagan, and Sarah Donaldson, whose personal and professional lives were greatly enriched by this exceptional man. There was an enormous number of other physicians, physicists, and researchers from around the world who also were trained by him and who continued to follow and to develop his principles. Tubiana’s expertise was sought by succeeding governments. He was one of the very first to advocate tobacco regulation at the highest level of the European Union. He was requested by the government to help reform medical studies in France. Accordingly, he played a major role in public health reform, most importantly leading to a broad smoking prevention law, the Loi Evin. For his many contributions to medicine and the radiologic sciences, Tubiana received the Gray, Breur, and Roentgen Medals, along with numerous other awards. “Retirement” was a word he would not adopt. Late in his career, he wrote articles and books at the Centre Antoine Be´cle`re, including the writing and editing of a textbook on radiobiology. As a disciplined author, he consistently reviewed his co-authors’ work, informing them of needed changes, which he would independently re-edit. Some of his favorite subjects in his later works included his faith in mankind and in science. Tubiana refuted weak scientific arguments and opposed the unlimited use of the precautionary principle, which was consistent with his interest in all aspects of public policy and public health. He was dismayed by unsubstantiated ideas and the manipulation of public opinion, denouncing the new alarmists and those propagating groundless fears. He defended nuclear energy and its medical uses, and sought to improve the image of science in modern society. Tubiana was not always politically correct and could be harsh in the defense of his ideas. But as a demanding perfectionist, he also knew how to listen and to accept contradiction. He was a fierce supporter of his students, but had little tolerance for those who did not share his work ethic. He could be charming, but also stern. Tubiana was rational but preoccupied by end-of-life concerns and euthanasia. He found aging difficult, but accepted it. Even at the end of his life, he maintained the qualities that had impressed many generations of colleagues: his extraordinary intelligence, analytical ability, and memory. He leaves an expanding legacy that continues to fuel the success of today’s radiation oncology by integrating multimodal cancer management with fundamental input from physics, imaging, and biology for optimal patient care. He will be remembered for his interest in the arts, his love of family, and his nostalgia for the sun and the sea of his youth in his native Algeria. Maurice Tubiana is survived by his wife, Monique, their daughter and son-in-law, Catherine and Patrice Carde, 2 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren.
Radiation Oncology biology
physics
www.redjournal.org
OBITUARY
Tribute to Professor Maurice Tubiana Franc¸ois Eschwege, MD, PhD,* Eric Deutsch, MD, PhD,*,y and Sarah S. Donaldson, MDz *Radiation Oncology Department; yMolecular Radiotherapy Laboratory INSERM1030, Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus, Paris-Sud University, Villejuif, France; and zDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, and Radiation Oncology Service Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford, California Received Nov 13, 2013. Accepted for publication Nov 15, 2013.
Professor Maurice Tubiana passed away on September 24, 2013 at the age of 93, after a long and productive life of service to medicine and his country. No one would have imagined, when reading his most recent scientific articles over the past several years, that he was more than 90 years of age. Maurice Tubiana was an extraordinary man. Reprint requests to: Eric Deutsch, MD, PhD, Professor of Oncology Radiation Therapy, Gustave Roussy Institute, Villejuif France Paris-Sud
Int J Radiation Oncol Biol Phys, Vol. 88, No. 3, pp. 755e756, 2014 0360-3016/$ - see front matter Ó 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2013.11.224
Born in Constantine, Algeria, in 1920, his childhood and adolescence were deeply affected by the death of a handicapped brother and then of his mother, when he was just 17 years old. After high school in Algiers, he left for Paris to study medicine. However, his studies were interrupted by World War II and the antiSemitic laws of the Vichy government. He made his way to Spain on foot, but was arrested and imprisoned; he then managed to return to Algeria to join the Free French Forces. Tubiana fought in the Tunisia campaign, then in Italy, where he served in the battle at Monte Cassino as a medic in the front lines with the Tirailleurs Alge´riens (Algerian light infantry). He was wounded in action in Provence in 1944 and later named Chevalier de la Le´gion d’Honneur for his military valor; he received the highest French military distinction, the Croix de Guerre. Tubiana returned to Paris to finish his medical studies and earned doctorate degrees in medicine in 1945 and in physics in 1947. His 2 mentors, Robert Debre´ and Fre´de´ric Joliot-Curie, enabled him to study and work at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California. This American experience had a lasting impact on his life and professional development. In 1952, Tubiana joined the Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France, as Professor of Medical Physics. It was here that Pierre Denoix invited him to “build a department with collaboration between research and clinical medicine.” Tubiana became Head of the Betatron and Isotopes Laboratory and worked with a young team of exceptionally talented investigators, including Bernard Pierquin, Jean and Andre´e Dutreix, and Claude Lalanne, to create a new approach to radiation therapy based on an alliance and partnership between clinical medicine, physics, and radiobiology. This group became the Department of Radiation Therapy, and was soon joined by Sauveur Abbatucci and later by Daniel Chassagne, Alain Laugier, and Claude Parmentier. In the years following, Michel Schlienger, Franc¸ois Eschwege, Alain Gerbaulet, Jean-Paul Le Bourgeois, Pierre Wibault, Jean Chavaudra, Alain Daban, Olivier Le Floch, J.P. Olivier, University, 94805 Villejuif, France. Tel: þ33 142114931; E-mail: eric. [email protected] Conflict of interest: none.
756
Eschwege et al.
Jean-Marc Cosset, Rodrigo Arriagada, and many others became part of this exciting team. Very few individuals have played such an important role as Maurice Tubiana in the development of our specialty. Among his technical contributions, he is credited for pioneering the use of megavoltage units, standardizing radiation therapy techniques, and creating radiation physics quality assurance programs. Tubiana also was a major contributor to the development of therapeutic multimodality standards for the management of patients with lymphoma. He developed treatment protocols for patients with Hodgkin disease in accordance with specific prognostic factors. Being trained both as a doctor of medicine and of physics, Tubiana also pioneered novel treatment approaches for patients with thyroid cancer, using both external beam radiation as well as radioiodine treatment. While continuing his clinical investigations in lymphoma and thyroid cancer, Tubiana simultaneously took on many other responsibilities, including Director of the Institut de Recherche de Radiobiologie Clinique of Inserm, and Director of the Institut Gustave Roussy from 1982 to 1988. He served as consultant to the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency, founded the International Agency for the Research on Cancer, and chaired the European Committee of Cancer Experts. Tubiana helped to build consensus in cancer management policies and strongly influenced the scientific community by using a model of intregrated research. His scientific background and his vision of the integration of researchers within his cancer hospital, the Institut Gustave Roussy, were unique at that time. Along with other talented clinician scientists in physics and clinical radiation therapy, he also strongly influenced the field of radiobiology, by describing the concepts of potentially lethal damage repair and relative biological effectiveness. Through this, and with the work of Edmond Malaise and Emilia Frindel, Tubiana published more than 350 scientific publications. He had an extraordinary visionary spirit, which motivated him to computerize the Institut Gustave Roussy patient records as long ago as 1970. Despite the enormous expense, he believed that computerized records were fundamental for clinical research and he was involved in the implementation of paperless dosimetry, which he developed with Prof Andre´e Dutreix. In essence, Tubiana was one of the first to advocate and practice translational cancer research. Tubiana’s widespread involvement in French, European, and international leadership continued throughout his lifetime. He was a founding member of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the International Society for Radiation Oncology, and was an early founder of the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology, along with Emmanuel Van der Schueren and others. He also served as a member of the Acade´mie des Sciences and president of the Acade´mie de Me´decine. He was extremely dedicated to the field and always kept up with the most recent new scientific reports, which he often read before others.
International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics Tubiana’s international recognition attracted visitors and trainees from all parts of the globe who aspired to learn from him and his extraordinary team at the Institut Gustave Roussy. Among them were radiation oncologists from America, including Jim Cox, Bob Kagan, and Sarah Donaldson, whose personal and professional lives were greatly enriched by this exceptional man. There was an enormous number of other physicians, physicists, and researchers from around the world who also were trained by him and who continued to follow and to develop his principles. Tubiana’s expertise was sought by succeeding governments. He was one of the very first to advocate tobacco regulation at the highest level of the European Union. He was requested by the government to help reform medical studies in France. Accordingly, he played a major role in public health reform, most importantly leading to a broad smoking prevention law, the Loi Evin. For his many contributions to medicine and the radiologic sciences, Tubiana received the Gray, Breur, and Roentgen Medals, along with numerous other awards. “Retirement” was a word he would not adopt. Late in his career, he wrote articles and books at the Centre Antoine Be´cle`re, including the writing and editing of a textbook on radiobiology. As a disciplined author, he consistently reviewed his co-authors’ work, informing them of needed changes, which he would independently re-edit. Some of his favorite subjects in his later works included his faith in mankind and in science. Tubiana refuted weak scientific arguments and opposed the unlimited use of the precautionary principle, which was consistent with his interest in all aspects of public policy and public health. He was dismayed by unsubstantiated ideas and the manipulation of public opinion, denouncing the new alarmists and those propagating groundless fears. He defended nuclear energy and its medical uses, and sought to improve the image of science in modern society. Tubiana was not always politically correct and could be harsh in the defense of his ideas. But as a demanding perfectionist, he also knew how to listen and to accept contradiction. He was a fierce supporter of his students, but had little tolerance for those who did not share his work ethic. He could be charming, but also stern. Tubiana was rational but preoccupied by end-of-life concerns and euthanasia. He found aging difficult, but accepted it. Even at the end of his life, he maintained the qualities that had impressed many generations of colleagues: his extraordinary intelligence, analytical ability, and memory. He leaves an expanding legacy that continues to fuel the success of today’s radiation oncology by integrating multimodal cancer management with fundamental input from physics, imaging, and biology for optimal patient care. He will be remembered for his interest in the arts, his love of family, and his nostalgia for the sun and the sea of his youth in his native Algeria. Maurice Tubiana is survived by his wife, Monique, their daughter and son-in-law, Catherine and Patrice Carde, 2 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren.
