Oncologist Helen Vodopick, M.D.

⁽¹⁾diagnostic and therapeutic medical techniques using radionuclides

⁽²⁾established in 1946 by the Manhattan Engineer District and operated under a Manhattan Project (and later Atomic Energy Commission) contract. ORINS was responsible for training physicians and researchers in the safe handling of radioisotopes and in the development of isotope applications in medicine. In addition, ORINS was responsible for selecting both students and established scientists for fellowships and other temporary research assignments. Today, the educational and training functions of ORINS are carried out by its successor, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE).

⁽³⁾the study of the nature, function, and diseases of the blood and of blood-forming organs

⁽⁴⁾incorporating with a radioactive isotope to make a substance traceable

⁽⁵⁾an endocrine gland located at the base of the neck and secreting two hormones that regulate the rates of metabolism, growth, and development

⁽⁶⁾Medium-Exposure-Rate Total Body Irradiator

⁽⁷⁾Comas was a staff physician in the Medical Division, in charge of radiation treatments. In 1994 he retired from the University of Tennessee.

⁽⁸⁾a medical specialist who deals with tumors, including the origin, development, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer

⁽⁹⁾A medical doctor, formerly a pathologist at Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, Kniseley left Lovelace for Oak Ridge, where he served as associate director of the Medical Division.

⁽¹⁰⁾Metallurgical Laboratory, the laboratory set up at the University of Chicago during World War II to lead the secret research and development of controlled nuclear fission under the Manhattan Project

⁽¹¹⁾Memorial Sloan-Kettering Foundation (New York, New York)

⁽¹²⁾the soft, fatty vascular tissue in the cavities of bones; it is a major site of blood-cell production.

⁽¹³⁾ tumors arising from any of the cellular elements of lymph nodes

⁽¹⁴⁾From 1953 to 1957, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Massachusetts General Hospital conducted a cooperative study on the distribution and excretion of uranium in humans using terminally ill brain cancer patients as subjects. Participants included male and female patients ranging in age from 26 to 63 years. All were near death (in a coma or semicoma) prior to injection and were receiving usual hospital care for comatose patients. See OR-20, "Uranium Injections Into Terminally Ill Cancer Patients," in Human Radiation Experiments Associated with the U.S. Department of Energy and Its Predecessors (210+ pages), DOE/EH-0491, July 1995.

⁽¹⁵⁾LeRoy had been dean of the University of Chicago medical school. At Argonne Cancer Research Hospital during the 1950s and '60s he researched lipid chemistry to understand the role of cholesterol in atherosclerosis. Several of the publications he coauthored can be found in the University of Chicago section of Human Radiation Experiments Associated with the U.S. Department of Energy and Its Predecessors (213 pages), DOE/EH-0491, July 1995.

⁽¹⁶⁾ORINS Medical Division researchers used lanthanum-140 in human studies to investigate the importance of individual variations that may result in radiation dose to the intestinal tract from internal emitters. The purpose was to verify prevailing assumptions to describe a standardized human intestinal tract. In the first study, 54 normal patients were administered 10 to 20 microcuries of lanthanum-140 citrate under a variety of meal scenarios. In the second study, lanthanum-140 was used to verify the completeness of information from analysis of stool collections for gastrointestinal absorption tests and to calculate the loss of unabsorbed iron-59 when fecal collections were incomplete. Twenty-one patients participated; each received 20 microcuries of lanthanum-140 and 2 microcuries of iron-59 orally. The studies were supported by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. See OR-26, "Gastrointestinal Tract Studies Using Lanthanum-140 and Iron-59," ibid.

⁽¹⁷⁾radioactive nuclides

⁽¹⁸⁾compounds consisting of fat, waxes, or similar substances, that are one of the chief structural components of the living cell

⁽¹⁹⁾developed or maintained in a controlled, nonliving environment, such as a test tube

⁽²⁰⁾inside the body

⁽²¹⁾a malignant disorder characterized by enlargement of the lymph nodes and spleen and by lymphoid infiltration along the blood vessels

⁽²²⁾the treatment of disease by means of toxic chemicals that have a specific toxic effect upon disease-producing microorganisms or that selectively destroy cancerous tissue

⁽²³⁾antibodies produced by a laboratory cell clone to achieve greater abundance and uniformity than provided by a natural collection of polyclonal antibodies. Studies are currently ongoing to test the anticancer effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies labeled with iodine-131 at several medical centers in the United States; initial results have been very positive.

⁽²⁴⁾Dwayne Sexton, the first patient to be treated at ORINS with immunotherapy. See "Introduction of Immunotherapy," below.

⁽²⁵⁾Vodopick participated in a long-term study of the efficacy of the METBI facility. G.A. Andrews, F.V. Comas, C.L. Edwards, R.M. Kniseley, C.C. Lushbaugh, and H. Vodopick. Hematologic and Therapeutic Effects of TBI in Patients with Malignant Lymphoma, Chronic Lymphocytic and Granulocyte Leukemias, and Polycythemia Vera. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, ORAU 112, 1970.

⁽²⁶⁾relating to leukemia, any of several cancers of the bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of white blood cells in the tissues, resulting in anemia, increased susceptibility to infection, and impaired blood clotting

⁽²⁷⁾a temporary or permanent decrease or subsidence of the manifestations of the disease

⁽²⁸⁾Dr. Eugene Saenger, presently emeritus professor of radiation therapy at University of Cincinnati

⁽²⁹⁾a disease characterized by overproduction of red blood cells

⁽³⁰⁾Granulocytic leukemias are leukemias involving overproduction of granulocytes (circulating white blood cells residing in the protoplasm).

⁽³¹⁾Titrate, in this context, means to control the flow rate of drug intravenously into the patient.

⁽³²⁾use of tumor-specific antibodies as carrier for a toxic agent for cancer therapy

⁽³³⁾a type of white blood cell important in the production of antibodies

⁽³⁴⁾install a cannula, a metal tube inserted into the body to draw off fluid or introduce medication

⁽³⁵⁾ a measure of the absorbed dose to tissue from exposure to radiation

⁽³⁶⁾Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome

⁽³⁷⁾the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, predecessor agency to the U.S. Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); established January 1, 1947

⁽³⁸⁾elements of blood cells that are essential for enabling the blood to coagulate

⁽³⁹⁾For the transcript of the October 5, 1994 interview with Lushbaugh, see DOE/EH-0453, Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Pathologist Clarence Lushbaugh, M.D. (April 1995).

⁽⁴⁰⁾a large facility constructed at Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel

⁽⁴¹⁾Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site of the Medical and Health Sciences Division, Oak Ridge; see Vodopick's description of the program later, under "Influence of ORAU on Radiation Therapy."

⁽⁴²⁾relating to epidemiology, the branch of medicine dealing with the statistics of incidence and prevalence of disease in large populations and with detection of the source and cause of epidemics; also: the factors contributing to the presence of absence of a disease

⁽⁴³⁾the city in the Ukraine where a nuclear power plant accident released large amounts of reactor fuel and fission products into the environment in 1986

⁽⁴⁴⁾taking a dangerous situation to its extreme limit. The term was coined in 1956, during the tenure of U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, to describe the practice of deliberately taking a dangerous international crisis to the brink of nuclear war.

⁽⁴⁵⁾cell-specific proteins that stimulate growth and cell division

⁽⁴⁶⁾National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sought to determine whether astronauts would be protected from the radiation flux in the Van Allen belts

⁽⁴⁷⁾ and from radiation in space in the event of a highly energetic stellar event (such as a supernova). Such exposures, NASA calculated, would amount to about 1.5 roentgens (R) per hour. Some LETBI patients would receive similar rates of exposure for days at a time, as astronauts might. Accordingly, NASA paid ORINS to report on the effects of such exposure on patients in order to develop techniques that could be used to diagnose whether an astronaut was developing radiation sickness. The funding led to charges that NASA was dictating the exposure rates that the LETBI staff administered to patients. See "NASA-Sponsored Studies" and "Questioning the Propriety of NASA-Funded Studies" in the Lushbaugh transcript.

⁽⁴⁸⁾pertaining to the spinal cord or bone marrow

⁽⁴⁹⁾a malignancy of bone marrow, marked by abnormal plasma cells; causes fatigue and bone pain and is often fatal

⁽⁵⁰⁾For the transcript of the interview with Karl Franz Hubner, see DOE/EH-0470 (September 1995).

⁽⁵¹⁾diisopropylfluorophosphorate-32, a granulocyte labeling agent

⁽⁵²⁾a technique whereby the radiation emanates from a single, collimated source, not from an array of sources as in TBI

⁽⁵³⁾determine the amount of material present in tissue, urine or feces by any trial measurement

⁽⁵⁴⁾ white blood cells

⁽⁵⁵⁾National Cancer Institute (of the National Institutes of Health)

⁽⁵⁶⁾having a toxic effect on certain cells. Cytotoxins are chemotherapy drugs used in cancer treatment.

⁽⁵⁷⁾the presence of an excessive amount of cholesterol in the blood—"high cholesterol"

⁽⁵⁸⁾any localized area of diseased or injured tissue or of abnormal structural change

⁽⁵⁹⁾a severe anemia in which vitamin B12 is inadequately absorbed and the production of red blood cells is defective

⁽⁶⁰⁾by being taken into the body in a manner other than through the digestive canal

⁽⁶¹⁾The fixed weekly salary worked out to about $4.60 an hour when divided by 60 or more hours.

⁽⁶²⁾If the patient was 7 years old when treated and 38 in December 1994, the chemotherapy took place in about 1963.

⁽⁶³⁾related to metabolism, the rate at which chemical processes take place in the body