page 33 7. BLOOD COUNTS Berge: I'm just abouft finished. Yffou mentioned something about radiation effects on the blood count during radiation therapy. Kohn: Berge: Yes. Did you work with, well what kind of work did you do with that? And did you have any collaboration with some of the hematologists at UCSF? Kohn: No, I was no great shakes. But where is that mentioned? That paper was published in 1955, Changes in the Human Leukocyte Count During X-ray Therapy for Cancer and Their Dependence Upon the Integral Dose. I had noticed when doigng some clignical work that the literature on changes in the blood count was very small, amazingly so. fimviivdinvelesavnummtmm I had a technician at PPBLer who drew the blood and did the counts of patients before, during and after treatment. as to what they mean. Berge: The results were interesting though I still am not sure Do you underst fig what is meant by dose? What do you mean, "I don't understand " ? Kohn: Well, radiation dose means the amount of radiation given tmmmanhm a small part of per gram of exposed tissue. What I found was that if you irradiatedthe neck, you gowa certain depression of the blood count. If you irradiated the whole neck, giving the same dogA\ as before, you got a much larger effect. So effect was proportional to the body mass irradiated. the Well, it was surppritig to tanpring