THE PIONEER: Wataru W. Sutow, 1912-1981, was a remarkable and pivotal leader in pediatric oncology. Early in his medical career, he conducted important clinical and anthropometric studies among Japanese and Marshall Island children exposed to atomic radiation. These studies established standards for childhood growth and development still in use today. Dr. Sutow pioneered the multidisciplinary approach to childhood
cancer by combining multidrug
chemotherapy protocols with surgery and
radiotherapy in the common childhood solid
tumors. The textbook "Clinical Pediatric Oncology," of which he was the senior editor, served to define the discipline of pediatric oncology and educate a new era of oncologists in the curative treatment for childhood
cancer. THE PAST AND PRESENT: The first edition of "Clinical Pediatric Oncology," published in 1973, demonstrated that only children with early-stage localized
Hodgkin disease had a realistic opportunity for cure. Soon the use of
combined-modality therapy consisting of low-dose, involved-field radiation plus multi-agent
chemotherapy emerged, and made the goal of cure realistic for all patients. This approach is now universal. Today, the 5-year relative survival rate for American children with
Hodgkin disease, who are under 14 years of age, is 94%, a dramatic and remarkable achievement.
FUTURE: