Vera Peters and the curability of Hodgkin disease

Abstract

The middle of the 20th century hailed the realization that patients with Hodgkin disease could be cured. Through the groundbreaking work of Vera Peters, patients with a localized form of the disorder, previously thought to be incurable, were shown to be cured by extended-field radiotherapy. This important observa-tion, although not immediately accepted, opened the minds of physicians to take more positive investiga-tive and therapeutic approaches. Peters also introduced and championed the concept of tumour staging in Hodgkin disease and the use of prognostic factors in clinical decision-making. This novel approach led to high cure rates with radiotherapy in localized disease and provided a scientific basis for the subsequent use of chemotherapy in disseminated disease, resulting in a very high cure rate in patients with all stages of Hodgkin disease.