ESHO-BSD award 2009

Mark Dewhirst (left) receives the ESHO-BSD award from Dr van Rhoon (European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology Secretary, right).

The 2009 recipient of the ESHO-BSD award is Professor Mark W. Dewhirst. Annually the European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology (ESHO) presents the ESHO BSD award to a person who has made outstanding contributions to the field of hyperthermia. Since its initiation the ESHO-BSD award has been presented only to those working in Europe, i.e. J. van der Zee (1999), P. Wust (2000), D. Gonzalez-Gonzalez (2001), R. Issels (2002), J.J.W. Lagendijk (2003), P. Vaupel (2004), S. Maluat (2005), R. Felix (2006), O. Dahl (2007) and G.C. van Rhoon (2008).

With Mark Dewhirst, the ESHO-BSD award has its first recipient from outside Europe. The latter reflects that the research performed by Mark Dewhirst and his team at Duke is closely followed by the worldwide hyperthermia community. There is no doubt that the publications of the Duke University hyperthermia group have a great impact on the research strategy of many international hyperthermia institutes. Professor Dewhirst has contributed extensively to the current scientific understanding on hyperthermia mechanisms in cancer treatment and has substantially contributed to our knowledge on thermal dosimetry, thermal dose-effect relationships, tumour oxygenation, physiology, biology as well as in making this knowledge available to others by enhancing the status of the International Journal of Hyperthermia. In addition Professor Dewhirst has contributed strongly to the Society of Thermal Medicine (previously the North American Hyperthermia Group).

Professor Dewhirst started his career from a sound education at the University of Arizona, where he obtained in 1971a BSc in chemistry with distinction. He graduated as Doctor in Veterinary Medicine at the Colorado State University and in 1979 obtained a PhD in Radiation Biology from the same institution. His professional career started with a position as Research Associate within the division of Radiation Oncology of the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. At this university he worked together with many of the USA pioneers in hyperthermia and acquired his addiction to hyperthermia. His career developed rapidly, and by 1993 he was appointed full Professor at the Department of Radiation Oncology of the Duke University Medical Center. From 1999 onwards he has held his current position: Gustavo S. Montana Professor of Radiation Oncology together with joint appointments as Professor of Pathology and Biomedical Engineering.

The various chair appointments of Professor Dewhirst reflect what he believes in most strongly: that a multi-disciplinary approach is essential to bring the benefits of hyperthermia to the patients. I had the privilege to attend a few Duke research retreats, and these meetings do not only illustrate the multi-disciplinary approach of the hyperthermia research at Duke but also demonstrate the strong commitment plus interactive contributions of the various groups involved. Professor Dewhirst considers communication as a crucial key for the success of the multi-disciplinary hyperthermia programme as is running at Duke University. In these retreat meetings I came to know that Professor Dewhirst can also perform as one of the best conductors world-wide.

Logically, the work of this multi-disciplinary group extends beyond that of hyperthermia alone in order to obtain fundamental biological and physiological knowledge on the treatment for a much wider range of diseases. The Duke group was among the first to demonstrate that assessment of the oxygenation state of high-grade soft tissue sarcomas, acquired prior to treatment, predicted for metastasis. The paper ‘Radiation therapy and hyperthermia improve the oxygenation of human soft tissue sarcomas’ in Cancer Research (pp: 5347–5350) by Brizel, Dewhirst and others has been cited 625 times since its publication in 1996. This focus on the wider implications returns in the discussions of all their hyperthermia publications. Whether the paper concerns thermal dose, temperature sensitive liposomes, temperature measurements, clinical outcome, etc., each hyperthermia topic is always discussed in the broader window of tumour biology, physiology and technology.

Beside his professional career Professor Dewhirst has an impressive scientific track record. He has published more than 400 peer reviewed papers and has, with 11,587 citations, an imposing H-index of 55. He is also an excellent mentor/tutor as is evident from the Mentor of the Year award, presented to him in 2009 by the Medical Physics graduates of the Duke University and the first Mentor of the Year award from the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2006. He was the PhD thesis adviser for 20 students, participated in 33 graduate committees and trained 17 medical students, 12 postdoctoral fellows plus 8 residents and clinical fellows. He has also distinguished himself as a funded researcher. He has been and still is the private investigator of many research grants, among which is a National Cancer Institute Program Project Grant (PO1) on hyperthermia and tumour physiology.

As said before Professor Dewhirst is a team-man and it is there for not surprising that he was the first to recognise the contribution of his workers and co-workers when he received the ESHO-BSD award. When referring to others it is impossible not to mention Nancy Dewhirst who is always by his side and has distinguished herself as the ‘other’ driving force behind the success of the Internal Journal of Hyperthermia during the last decade: high impact factor and a very short turn around time for the review of submitted manuscripts. Key-words immediately popping up when describing characters of Mark and Nancy are: hard working, very friendly, warm personalities, calm and collected persons, highly intelligent and great hosts. Many guests stayed at their home and enjoyed excellent dinners and good discussions on hyperthermia and the peculiarities of the American way of life.

The European Society for Hyperthermic Oncology is grateful to Professor Dewhirst for contributing so strongly to the field of hyperthermia and dedicating his energy to investigating fundamental and translational aspects of the role that hyperthermia might have in the treatment of cancer. He sets an example for many.