In memoriam–Edward L. Gillette

Edward L. Gillette, DVM, PhD, died on 17 November 2006 as a result of metastatic prostate cancer. Ed was a multifaceted individual. One side of Ed was that of a veterinary diagnostic radiologist, having passed the first certification examination ever administered by the American College of Veterinary Radiology. Although Ed subsequently co-authored a textbook on veterinary radiology, this specialty took second place to his love of oncology.

In his early days, Ed studied at Colorado State University with William D. Carlson, DVM, PhD, one of the founding Diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Radiology. Bill Carlson introduced Ed to the concept of radiation therapy of naturally occurring tumours in pets, a concept that guided Ed's scientific and clinical efforts for decades to come. Ed conducted radiation therapy with a systematic and scientific approach and overcame reluctance on the part of animal owners and referring veterinarians to employ this modality.

Ed and Bill began their work in radiation oncology using an orthovoltage X-ray machine. This was followed by work with cobalt photons. And then through Ed's futuristic spirit, he spearheaded the installation of the first linear accelerator in the world dedicated to treatment of spontaneous tumours in pets at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Colorado State University.

Through Ed's love for oncology, and his veterinary background, he realized the value of spontaneous tumours in animals as a model of human cancer. This vision was enhanced through discussions with Herman Suit and H. Rodney Withers, then both radiation oncologists at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Ed spent a year's academic leave at The Anderson in 1968–69, and this experience heightened Ed's enthusiasm for prospective research, and narrowed his focus of work primarily to assessment of the effects of ionizing radiation on normal tissue and experimental cancer therapeutic approaches.

I had the privilege of working directly with Ed for five years, though our collaborations subsequently stretched over decades. I went to Colorado State University in 1969 for a training programme in diagnostic radiology. Ed had just returned from his academic leave at The Anderson, and his enthusiasm for cancer investigation quickly rubbed off on me. I ended up completing a graduate degree in radiation biology, with Ed as my Major Professor, studying the combination of radiation and hyperthermia in murine tumours.

Ed and I began this hyperthermia work following the serendipitous discovery of a paper by George Crile on the use of hyperthermia in human osteosarcoma. Excited by Crile's findings, we initiated a series of experiments aimed at quantifying the effect of hyperthermia in terms of equivalent radiation damage, an early, albeit misguided perhaps, approach taken by many of us with a founding in the radiologic sciences. Ed supported my work through grants from the American Cancer Society and the Milheim Foundation. Unknown to us at the time we were considering our strategy was the fact that Arthur Westra and Bill Dewey were just completing their seminal in vitro hyperthermia work in laboratories in another unit of our own institution. Soon we were all working together in this exciting area. I also remember in these early days Ed and I sitting on a staircase in the Palmer House in Chicago at the RSNA meeting discussing the merits of hyperthermia with Eugene Robinson, the namesake of the prestigious award given by the Society of Thermal Medicine to outstanding workers in the field. It was perhaps the most exciting scientific time that I have experienced.

I left Colorado State University and took a circuitous career path with regard to hyperthermia until Mark Dewhirst, Jim Oleson and Lenonard Prosnitz provided me the opportunity to get re-enrolled with hyperthermia in a serious way here in North Carolina. In the meantime, Ed had continued methodically to pursue a systematic evaluation of hyperthermia that culminated in two positive randomized clinical trials combining hyperthermia and radiation in canine spontaneous tumours. These randomized assessments of radiation therapy with and without hyperthermia documented the beneficial effects of heat in canine oral carcinomas [1] and in canine soft tissue sarcomas [2]; these were the first positive randomized hyperthermia trials in the world. Although Ed's work in hyperthermia branched out into whole body techniques, and as an immune-modifier, it was these two pivotal trials in canine tumours that helped keep the interest in hyperthermia alive until positive phase III trials came along in human tumours.

Ed was able to acquire over $20 million in research funding, for hyperthermia and his study of normal tissue effects, during his career at Colorado State University. He also trained dozens of graduate students, many of whom have gone on to successful scientific careers. He helped thousands of pets battle cancer through his clinical radiation oncology activities, an effort that also enhanced the lives of the owners of these animals. Ed's work lives on through the scientific productivity of his trainees and through the activities of today's specialists in veterinary radiation oncology, who he aided in his role as one of the founding Diplomates of the Recognized Veterinary Specialty of Radiation Oncology, an organizational unit of the American College of Veterinary Radiology.

With Ed's passing I have lost a dear friend and the hyperthermia community has lost a visionary leader. Whether we consciously recognize it or not, Ed Gillette's work in hyperthermia was a significant boost to the establishment of hyperthermia as a proven cancer treatment modality.