Human radiation studies: Remembering the early years: Oral history of physician James S. Robertson, M.D., Ph.D., conducted January 20, 1995

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Septem ber 1995 Setting: January 20,1995; Germantown, Maryland . Interviewers: Michael Yuffiee and Prita Pillai ORAL fflSTORY OF PHYSICIAN The interview was conducted January 20, 1995, in Germantown. Maryland, by M chael Yvffee and Prita Pillaifrom the Department ofEnergy’s Office ofHuman James S. Robertson was selectedfor the oral historyproject because o fhis research at BrooHwcvenNationaiLaboratory, especidly on Boron Neutron Capture Therapy his work at the Atomic Energy Commission. Dr. Robertson was He received his B.S. University of Minnesota, and his PhD. (Physiology and Medical Physics, 1949) at the Univer sity of Cdifomia at Berkeley. He is married and has three children. Dr. Robertson began his career as a Medical Officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II (1945-46). Immediately following his naval service, he spent two months in private practice. After receiving his PhD., Dr. Robertson went to Brookhaven National Laboratory as a scientist in the Medical Research Center (1950-53). Aside from a two-year return to the Navy at the United States Navy Radio logical Defense Laboratory (1953-55), Dr. Robertson remained at Brookhaven until 1975. From 1975 to 1983, Dr. Robertson practiced at the hfeyo Clinic in Rochester, Miimesota. Dr. Robertson completed his career with a term of service as Director of the Human-Health and Assessments Division, U.S. Department of Energy. While serving in these positions. Dr. Robertson has held the following positions: Adjunct Professor, State University of New York, Stony Brook Adjunct Professor, City College of New York Member, American Physiological Society Member, Society of Nuclear Medicine, Medical Internal Radiation Dose Committee 1968 to 1971—Member, Radiation Research Society Dr. Robertson has published many times on boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). In addition. Dr. Robertson has also published articles on the medical follow-up of the Marshall Islanders, research on nephrotic children, and radiotherapy to treat various blood diseases. YUFFEE: Today is January 20, 1995. I’m Michael Yuffee of the Department of Energy’s Office of Human Radiation Experiments. I’m here with my colleague Prita Pillai, also of the Office of Human Radiation Experi ments. Today we’re interviewing Dr. James Robertson, and we’re in the Department of Energy office in Germantown. Dr. Robertson, I’d like to tiiank you for agreeing to talk to us and, also. I’d like to start by asking you a little about your education, where you went to school, and why you chose medicine.

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Setting: January 20,1995; Germantown, Maryland interviewers: Michael Yuffee and Prita Piliai (DOE Office of Human Radiation Experiments) The principal contact at Berkeley, my thesis leader, was Hardin B. Jones,^ who is a pretty iamous physiologist Nello Pace®was involved, also. Then I worked with people like Will Siri.’ Ernest? and Lowiy Dobsoi^ Lola Kelly. John Lawrence’®was the Director of Donner Lab at that time. I had several projects going there. For my thesis, I used the data that we collected using a mass spectrometer" that had been built by Will Siri. We used it as a gas analyzer, and I used it by measuring the composition o f respiratory gases to measure various aspects of the circulation—^in particular, things like the cardiac output—^and ended up with a thesis based on lung ventilation patterns. I did some other work on the analysis of deuterium" by what was called the “falling drop method,” and except for publishing the technique, nodiing much ever came of that I helped in the lab with Dr. Lawrence’s work on the treatment of polyc)dhemia [vera]" by use of radioactive materials. There was a lot of radiation work going on at the lab, and to a certain extent all of us participated in various projects. Hardin B. Jones, M.D., was a physician who woriced with John Lawrence at the Donner Laboratory, Berke ley. He was an early associate of John Lawrence’s. He studied isotope applications in nuclear medicine and showed uptake of iodine-1311^ human and bovine thyroids. Regarded as an excellent experimentalist, Jones became the scientific assistant director of Donner Laboratory and led a research group. He was a member of the National Advisoiy Committee on Radiation of the Federal Radiation Council. See “Reflections on Hardin Jones” in DOE/EH-0476, Human Radialion Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History o f Physiol From 1946 to 1967, Pace served at UC Beriwley as a research associate for the Division of Medical Physics and a professor ofPhy^ology, chairing the Department of Plysiologyfiom 1964 to 1967. He established fte White Mountain Research Station near Bi^op, California in 1950, where he worked from 1950 to 1977. In 1977, he became an emeritus professor of Physiology at UC Beikeley. Pace’s research interests were in gravitational physiology, environmental physiology, and body composition. See DOE/EH-0476, Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History o f Physiologist Nello Pace, PhD. (June 1995). WilliamEmil Siri, (1919-),aphysicis^woiked on the Manhattan ProjectatUCBokeleyfiom 1943 to 1945. Afierward he conducted research at Donner Laboratory. Siri researched the ^plication of radioisotopes to biology and medicine. He also studied high-aldtude physiology, leading expeditions to the Peruvian Andes, the Himalaya Mountains, and Antarctica. Ernest L. Dobson, Ph.D., was a biophysicist who was became a U.S. citizen. He worked as a physiologist at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory fionw946 until his death, conducting research on the physiology of the circulatory system. citizen. He was a research fellow at Donner Laboratory and Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (at UC Berkelq') and was chief medical officer until 1958. Additionally, he was a senior scientist in the Biomedical Sciences Division at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, conducting research on the health effects of exposure to environmental agents, radiation, and internal radionuclides. Dr. John Lawrence, brother of Ernest 0 . Lawrence, was Director of the Division of Medical Physics at the University of California, Berkelqr. He operated a clinic at Donner Laboratory, where he treated leukemia and polycjrthemia vera patients with radioactive phosphorus. a device that uses deflection of ions in an electromagnetic field as a basis for identifying the elements (or elemental components) present in a substance an isotope of hydrogen, having twice the mass of ordinary hydrogen (protium); “heavy hydrogen” a disease characterized by overproduction of red blood cells

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Septem ber 1995 Setting: January 20,1995; Germantown, Maryland Interviewers: Michael Yuffee and Prita Pillai (DOE Office of Human Radiation Experiments) production; there were not a lot o f commercial suppliers. It seems to me, on occasion we did get some from Oak Ridge.’* PILLAI: How did you end up at Brookhaven immediately after Berkeley? ROBERTSON: When I frnished my degree, there was a question o f whether I should stay there or go somewhere else, and I was particularly interested in a jo b at Denver. The original contact would have been at University o f Colorado with Ted Puck.“ But he couldn’t arrange it immediately, and he wanted to take a temporary job at the Veterans Administration; and at the moment, I didn’t want to do that. Invited to Join the New Lab at Brookhaven (1950) ROBERTSON: Then Leo Faif^’ came out and interviewed people for jobs and invited me to visit Brookhaven. I was so impressed! At that time, Brookhaven was a very new Lab, but I was impressed by the amount o f equipment and things that they had assembled and what they planned to do, and that’s where I signed up. PILLAI: And Farr was the head o f the [Brookhaven] medical division? ROBERTSON: Dr. Leo Farr was the head o f the Medical Department at the time. PILLAI: Can you talk a little about what Brookhaven was like when you first came there; the organization, as well as the research activities? ROBERTSON: Well, Brookhaven was in the throes o f getting going, and, for example, a couple of the lead people were Desmond and Marietta Kuper,^ and one During World War II, the Manhattan Project had built a vast complex of highly classified facilities in and near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to process uranium for use in atomic bombs. The Atomic Energy Commission took control o f these facilities upon its creation and, today, they belong to the Department o f Energy. For producing weapons-grade plutonium, the reactor design installed at Oak Ridge proved to be significantly less efiicient than an alternative Manhattan Project design at Hanford Site. After World War II, a decision was made to make Oak Ridge the principal source for reactor-produced radioisotopes, a mission to which the Oak Ridge Reactor was well-suited. try, biophysics, and genetics at the University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver fixrm 1948 until his retirement He was a member o f the National Academy o f Sciences and a recipient o f numerous awards and medals. He developed principles of somatic cell genetics and genetic biochemistry and events leading to cancer. (1934-40). He subsequently served as director o f research at du Pont Nemour Formdation, Wilmington, Delaware 0 9 4 0 -4 2 ,194&-48). He worked at the Naval Medical Research Institute (1942-46); headed the medical research center at Brookhaven (1948-62), worked at M.D. Anderson Hospital, University o f Hous ton (1962-67); and organized emergency medical services for the State o f California Department o f Public Health, Berkeley (1967-73). Dr. Farr conducted research on kidney disease; nephrosis; protein metabolism; electrolyte imbalance; blood substitutes; deep-sea diving and submarine medicine; and the development of applications o f nuclear science to medicine. At Brookhavert, Dr. Farr was Robertson’s first supervisor and worked with Dr. William Sweet on the boron neutron capture program for treatment o f brain tumors. J.B. Homer (Desmond) Kuper a physicist and electronics engineer who conducted research on spectrophotometer development, Geiger counters, and other radiation detection instrumentation. He served at the Radiation Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1941-46). Subsequently, at Brookhaven, he headed the Electronics Division; chaired the Instrumentation and Health Physics Department (1947-70);

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Setting: January 20,1995; Germantown, Maryland interviewers: Michael Yufiee and Prita Piiiai (DOE Office of Human Radiation Experiments) Well, I was very enthusiastic about BNCT. We’d started with meetings sachusetts General Hospital [in Boston]. They had the theoretical basis for thinking that boron neutron capture therapy might be workable, and Brookhaven had the reactor facility that was an attractive source for trying diis. Actually, we did what turns out to be an inadequate number of animal experiments. With this we had to do a special construction of a &cility that was at the top of BNL’s research reactor. By removing some of the shielding blocks, we constructed a sort of pit that a patient could be put into, and it [was] big enough that doctors could work around and establish intra venous setups and stuff like tiiat. But then, when the actual radiation was taking place, all the personnel would get behind a shielded area, leaving the patient pretty much alone, although under television surveillance for the radiation. The first irradiation [would take] 30 minutes or so. When the reactor shut down, then we could come in and take the patient to the hospital for further studies. One of the incidental things that I did in connection with this was to measure the patient’s radioactivity as result of being exposed to the neutrons.^ There is induced radioactivity, and it’s a way of measuring the dose that he got.^’ Did it initially start out as a collaboration with MIT?^® Yes. In particular, the principal investigators were considered to be Bill Sweet and Leo Farr. Was there a lot of controversy surroimding it initially or once you had Well, there really wasn’t a lot of controversy. We had to make it a sort of—^maybe not a secret, but at least a low-publicity procedure. But somebody tipped off some science writer, who came out and made it a big splash in some popular science magazine. I forget whether it was Popular Mechanics or one of those. So that [project] had started getting William H. Sweet, M.D., D.Sc. was a neurosurgeon at Harvard University Medical School from 1940 until his retirement in the late 1970s. He conducted research on the central nervous system, brain fluids, treatment of brain tumors, mechanisms of pain, and behavior relating to brain disease. During the 1950s, Dr. Sweet conducted research using boron neutron capture therapy in conjunction with Brookhaven National Gordon L. Brownell, Ph.D. conducted research on the imaging of positron-emitting radionu clides and computerized axial tomography, and the dosimetry eSects o f ionizing radiation. He served as a medical physicist and professor of nuclear engineering at the Massachusetts Institute o f Technology. Brownell was a lecturer at Harvard Medical School. From 1950 to the present he has been a physicist at Ae Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. elementary particles found in the nucleus o f most atoms and having no electrical charge Robertson is referring to neutron activation analysis. When an element is introduced into a nuclear reactor, radioactive isotopes will be produced as neutrons are cqrtured into the nucleus of the element’s atoms. By measuring the radioactive emissions of these isotopes, scientists can more eaaly identify the irradiated elements. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

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Setting: January 20,1995; Gennantown, Maryland Interviewers: Michael Yuflee and Prita Pillai (DOE Office of Human Radiation Experiments) ‘^'I on nephrotic children. . . I don’t really remember that detail. We did get involved in iodine-131 treatment of thyroid‘s in general, and we had Rulon Rawson^’ and some other people from New York City that were our advisors in the use of iodine in developing therapy and in studying With the nephrotic children, I know the children were at the hospital, and the parents could have been located in other areas. How involved were the parents in the treatment of the children? Was there a correspon dence that took place? The parents were frequent visitors and were kept informed, mostly by conversation. I don’t remember writing letters to the parents and things like that. When they came in, we would talk to them about what we were doing and how the child was doing and try to answer their questions. With all the experiments that were conducted at Brookhaven—I know that Brookhaven was one of the earliest places where actual consent forms could be seen. Were the consent forms filled out for experimental proce dures or did they basically have them but fiiey weren’t filled out for partic ular experiments? Do you recall anything for the consent forms? The consent forms were very primitive at that time. We had general cons^t forms that people would sign that didn’t really spell out details of what we would be doing. I mean, they said they would agree that we would conduct certain procedures, in general terms, and the parents of the children involved or the patients themselves would sign this sort of general thing. To the other extend the doctors would talk to patients and then make a [handwritten] recording in the patient’s own record as to what was told the patient The doctor would sign this and this was con sidered informed consent at that time. Were they told general information, or were they given specifics? For example, the patients with BNCT. The patients •with BNCT were very clearly told this was …