National Cancer Institute
Sidney Farber and Mary Lasker
Sidney Farber and Mary Lasker played an essential role in not only in cancer research, but helping the American people that there might be a remedy to cancer. The Dana-Farber institute was founded in 1947 which dedicated its studies on treating children with cancer while developing the cancer preventatives, treatments, and cures of the future. Working along side Nixon, both Farber and Lasker devoted their lives to finding a cure and fighting the war that affects all of mankind.
Sidney Farber, M.D. - founder of Children's Hospital Cancer Research Foundation in the 1950's and 1960's. January 1960, National Cancer Institute.
Sidney Farber
Sidney Farber has seen diseases kill a mass of people ever since he was young. From his earlier experiences, he devoted his studies to combat cancer. In 1948, he saw "that chemical agents antagonistic to folic acid could achieve short term clinical remission in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) with aminopterin."
~ WAR ON CANCER PT.2: LANDMARKS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHEMOTHERAPY, 2019. The Biomedical Scientist.
“A generalization may be formulated for guidance, even in the absence of truly curative therapy: everything that can be done with the aid of medical tools now available should be carried out for the comfort, relief of pain and prolongation of life of the patient with acute leukemia.”
~ CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 1965. American Cancer Society.
Sidney Farber on the War on Cancer, 1967. American Cancer Assoication.
Partnerships
Ted Williams and Tom Yawkey talk baseball with Dr. Farber, 1960. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
"The Jimmy Fund started in 1948 when the Variety Children's Charity of New England and the Boston Braves baseball team joined forces to help a 12-year-old cancer patient dubbed 'Jimmy.'"
~History of the Jimmy Fund. The Jimmy Fund.
In 1953, 21-year-old Edward M. Kennedy (left) presented Ted Williams (second from right) with a $50,000 check from the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation for the Jimmy Fund. The Brearley Collection.
"As Dana-Farber grew, Kennedy was there with his own powerful voice and presence to celebrate. He attended both the dedication of the Dana building in 1976 and the groundbreaking for the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care in 2007."
~"Senator Kennedy was driving force against cancer at Dana-Farber and beyond," Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 2009.
Mary Lasker
Mary Lasker: Still Determined To Beautify the City and Nation April 28, 1974. NY Times.
Mary Lasker (second from left) at the Continental Insurance Company Research Institute in October 1968. Columbia University.
Mary Lasker at the National Cancer Advisory Board, 1950s. Lasker Foundation.
Mary Lasker advocates for cancer research, 1952. Lasker Foundation.
“... I'm very good on what we don't know in medicine... it's not the will of God, it's the dumbness of man, and the lack of enterprise and money that's the problem.”
~Mary Lasker, 1996. NY TIMES
"Medical philanthropist, political strategist, and health activist Mary Lasker (1900-1994) acted as the catalyst for the rapid growth of the biomedical research enterprise in the United States after World War II. Called "a matchmaker between science and society" by Jonas Salk, Lasker was a well-connected fundraiser and astute lobbyist who through charm, energy, and skillful use of the media persuaded donors, congressmen, and presidents to provide greatly increased funds for medical research as the main means of safeguarding the health and welfare of Americans."
~"The Mary Lasker Papers," 2019. National Institutes of Health