Herman Suit, MD, DPhil: Inspirational Physician, Scholar, and Gentleman

Radiation was first used to treat cancer at the beginning of the 20th century, but it was not until the 1950s that radiation oncology emerged as an independent specialty with a unique practice, societies, science, and training. The second half of that century saw the specialty bloom and mature, nurtured by a few colossal figures. One of the last of those giants, Herman Suit, died in July 2022 at the age of 93. Herman was raised and educated in Texas through the 1930s and 1940s before going to Oxford (Oxford University in England) in the 1950s as a mentee of the radiation oncology pioneer Frank Ellis. Ellis left a deep and abiding impression on Herman's scientific philosophy and instilled in him an evidence-based rigor that he held to his final breath. If you cannot prove it by data, doubt it. Be skeptical. Every trainee came to learn this mantra. Herman, together with other scientific pioneers such as Maurice Tubiana and Rod Withers, set out to understand how radiation affects cancer cells and normal tissues, the better to adapt it for maximal therapeutic effect. Radiation Oncology, as a Cinderella specialty among its big sisters Surgery and, later, Medical Oncology, needed a foundation in solid science to hold its own. Herman provided this and the chapters on radiation biology that he wrote for Gilbert Fletcher's textbook assumed a biblical significance in our field. His laboratory work and his writing led to concepts that now seem so commonplace that we assume it was always thus. It was not. Matching radiation dose to radiation sensitivity, matching dose with shrinking fields according to tumor volume, artful fractionation, chemo-radiation, and surgery and radiation combinations all emerged from Herman's mind and were demonstrated in Herman's mice.