Sidney Wallace, a legendary pioneer of interventional radiology, passed away, aged 84, on May 25, 2013.

Sid was born in Philadelphia in 1929. He started his medical career at Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, in 1950 and obtained his MD degree in 1954. The following year, Sid accomplished an internship at Philadelphia General Hospital, before entering a one year residency in surgery. He joined the US army as a surgeon for 2 years, stationed in Japan and Korea. Sid always emphasized the importance of surgical training for interventional radiological practice. The challenges of diagnostic radiology had attracted him to enter residency training in radiology at Jefferson Medical College Hospital, Philadelphia, in 1959. In 1963, Sid accomplished a one year fellowship at the Department of Radiology of the University Hospital of Lund, Sweden, headed by Olle Ollson. At that time, Lund had developed into the world center of angiography, where he met with Erik Boijsen and Anders Lunderquist. Anders and Sid collaborated for many years in a hands-on teaching programme in interventional radiology with an original format. 1969, Sid was appointed Professor of Radiology at the Department of Diagnostic Radiology of MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, where he spent his entire medical career, basically devoted to oncological radiology. From 1964 to 1984, Sid hold the position of Head of the section of Clinical Diagnostic Radiology. In 1989, he became Division Head of Diagnostic Imaging and Department Chairman of Diagnostic Radiology and in retirement Professor Emeritus.

Sidney Wallace was a one of the most fertile creators and inventors in interventional radiology.

During his internship at Jefferson, Sid published a groundbreaking series on diagnostic and therapeutic potential of lymphangiography, including lymph node biopsy. In 1962–1963, Sid performed the first percutaneous biliary drainage in the USA and promoted percutaneous liver abscess drainage as an alternative to surgery. Most of his work was devoted to cancer treatment. Sid had a determinant influence on the introduction and refinement of catheter directed arterial tumor embolization, chemo-infusion and chemo-embolization. He had submitted himself to pre-operative renal embolization. Sid started micro-encapsulation work on Tamoxifen as early as 1975 and continued this work without interruption after retirement.

The collaboration of Sidney Wallace and Cesare Gianturco at MD Anderson since 1969 was extremely beneficial to progress in intervention. The creative imagination of both great pioneers had given rise to a variety of original devices and techniques, that are nowadays in daily practice. They advocated systematic heparinization during diagnostic angiography, did preliminary work on percutaneously placed bird’s nest vena cava filter and experimented on the first wooly tail arterial embolization coils. In 1980, Sid inspired Gianturco to devise the first stainless steel selfexpandable vascular zig-zag stents, which came up 5 years later. The MD Anderson team has been working on vascular and non vascular stents ever since. Since the beginning, Bill Cook was highly instrumental in the spread of the new devices.

Although Sidney Wallace had focused his pioneer work on devices, techniques and pharmaceuticals, patients have always been his primary concern. From the beginning, Sid believed in the value of multidisciplinary teamwork approach of treating cancer patients. He was an accomplished clinician, radiologist, researcher, manager and above all, a convincing teacher. Sid put great energy and verve in teaching the next generations, lecturing restlessly throughout the world on radiological management of cancer patients.

Sid was a gentle and cultured man, full of humor, much devoted to his friends. He placed utmost importance in his faith. Beside being a talented interventional radiologist, Sid was a gifted artist, cantor, song writer, cartoonist, painter and sculptor. The center of Sid’s life was his family. He is survived by his beloved wife, Marsha, without whom he never travelled abroad, three children, Stewart, Andrea and Michael and five grandchildren.

Robert F. Dondelinger, MD, Hon. Prof., Hon. FRCR

Liège, Belgium