Title:

Letter from Sidney Farber to Mary Lasker

Creator:

Harvard Medical School. Children's Hospital
Farber, Sidney

Recipient:

Lasker, Mary

Date:

19 August 1955

Description:

Farber, a Harvard pathologist and cancer researcher, was one of Lasker's most stellar "citizen witnesses" before Congress and an ardent supporter of NCI's chemotherapy program, which he hailed as "the greatest mobilization of resources--man, mineral, animal, and money--ever undertaken to conquer a single disease." He had discovered in the early 1950s that treatment with anti-folic acid compounds resulted in permanent remission of acute leukemia in children; the first time physicians had been able to produce such a remission. After the recent discovery of penicillin and streptomycin had given physicians unprecedented control over infectious diseases, Farber's discovery seemed to confirm the possibility that scientists would discover a "magic bullet" against cancer.

Original Repository:

Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Mary Lasker Papers

Location:

Box: 170

Rights:

Courtesy of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation.

Disclaimer:

The National Library of Medicine's Profiles in Science program has made every effort to secure proper permissions for posting items on the web site. In this instance, however, it has either not been possible to identify or contact the current copyright owner. If you have information regarding the copyright owner, please contact https://support.nlm.nih.gov.

Genre:

Letters (correspondence)

Format:

Text

Extent:

3 pages

Language:

English

Legacy Source Citation:

Original Repository. Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Mary Lasker Papers. 12417

Legacy ID:

TLBBHF

NLM ID:

101584665X108

Profiles Collection:

The Mary Lasker Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584665X108

Story Section:

Cancer Wars