Radiology, Vol 201, 671-674, Copyright © 1996 by Radiological Society of North America
The influence of Harvey Cushing on neuroradiologic therapy [published erratum appears in Radiology 1997 May;203(2):580]
M Schulder, PM Black, E Alexander 3rd and JS Loeffler
Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass, USA.
Harvey Cushing was largely responsible for the establishment of
neurosurgery as a separate discipline. He demonstrated how careful
attention to technique could make surgery acceptably safe, established
classifications and clinical-pathologic correlations of a wide variety of
tumors, and trained dozens of future neurosurgical department heads. Less
well known, however, is Cushing's contribution to the early clinical use of
radiation therapy for a variety of intracranial disorders. With the aid of
his meticulous clinical follow-up, large case volume, and willingness to
try new treatment methods, he demonstrated the utility of therapeutic
radiation in patients with pituitary tumor, medulloblastoma, and
arteriovenous malformation. His less impressive results with the
irradiation of patients with glioma are also worthy of note and include
trials of brachytherapy. Neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists exploring
new methods of delivering therapeutic radiation to the central nervous
system should be aware of the lessons learned from Cushing's experience.
