Simon M. Berger, 99, radiologist and breast-cancer research pioneer

Simon M. Berger, 99, of Wyndmoor, a radiologist who did pioneering research on using X-rays to diagnose breast cancer, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on Saturday, Jan. 7, at home.

In 1951, Dr. Berger and Dr. Jacob Gershon-Cohen received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the pathology and the technical requirements for breast cancer detection with X-rays at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.

The two conducted a course in 1955 on mammography, which uses low doses of radiation to produce an image of the breast on film. The course, Dr. Berger later told an interviewer, attracted physicians from all over the country.

He and Gershon-Cohen went on to publish more than 100 articles in medical journals about their research.

Dr. Berger maintained an interest in breast cancer long after the first dedicated mammography machine was developed in Germany in 1966.

In a 1990 interview in the Chestnut Hill Hospital HealthCare Newsletter, he said breast cancer could be up to 90 percent curable if women performed monthly self-examinations and had mammograms. "The disease kills 43,000 women every year," he said. "With these statistics in mind, I strongly emphasize that women take basic preventive action to keep breast cancer from devastating their lives."

Dr. Berger joined the staff at Einstein in 1949 and in the 1960s was chief of diagnostic radiology there.

He later was chief of the radiology department at Episcopal Hospital. He was also on the staff of Chestnut Hill Hospital and was a clinical professor of radiology at Temple University School of Medicine and at the former Hahnemann University Medical School.

He enjoyed teaching and often had parties for his medical residents at his home, a daughter, Betsy, said.

In 1998, Dr. Berger joined the staff of Germantown Hospital, an affiliate of Einstein Medical Center. He retired at 90 in 2002. He would have liked to continue working but Einstein closed the radiology department at Germantown Hospital, his daughter said.

Dr. Berger grew up with 12 siblings in Wilmington. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware, where he met his future wife, Ruth Euster.

He earned a medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University, interned at Delaware Hospital in Wilmington, and completed a residency in radiology at Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

He was an avid tennis player and swimmer. He walked along the Wissahickon almost every day until well into his 80s, his daughter said.

Dr. Berger and his wife, an artist, were married for 56 years, until her death in 1994.

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by another daughter Carol Hershman, two sisters, two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

A service will be private. Dr. Berger donated his body to science.

Donations may be made to Doctors Without Borders USA, P.O. Box 5030, Hagerstown, Md. 21741-5030.