[1][2] He was a significant influence on how breast cancer is treated and was a visible and controversial advocate for alternative procedures, now considered normal treatments.
[1] He was the son of famous surgeon, George Washington Crille, a founding partner of the Cleveland Clinic.
[1][2][3]: 62 After graduating Crile chose to intern at the Barnes Hospital (1933–34) under surgeon Evarts Ambrose Graham, noted for successfully removing a lung from a cancer patient.
[2] During World War II, he served in the US Navy (1942–46), stationed at naval hospitals in San Diego and New Zealand.
Crile performed his final radical mastectomy in 1954[1] and became a public advocate of alternative procedures, which are now standard.
[3]: 64 He was an outspoken critic of traditional procedures for decades and some of his patients, including author Babette Rosmond, became public advocates as well.
[citation needed] He retired as head of the Cleveland Clinic's Department of General Surgery in 1968, continuing as a senior consultant.