The Father of Modern Chemotherapy

Sidney Farber in 1947, during his children's cancer remissions research.

Born on September 30^th, 1903 in Buffalo, New York, Sidney Farber was a pediatric pathologist who is widely considered the “Father of Modern Chemotherapy.”

After being rejected from US medical schools in the mid-1920’s due to his Jewish heritage, Farber relocated to Europe where he excelled at the Universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg in Germany. He later entered Harvard Medical School as a second-year student and graduated in 1927 at the age of 24.

Later, he trained in pathology at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston and was appointed as resident pathologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, before becoming an assistant in pathology at Harvard in 1928.

While working on a research project at Harvard, he evaluated aminopterin, (which is the 4-amino derivative of folic acid with immunosuppressive properties,) and discovered that it could be used to induce remissions among children with leukemia. He published his findings in 1948 in The New England Journal of Medicine, using a study of 16 children with leukemia and showcasing that 10 of them had shown clinical, hematologic, and pathologic evidence of improvement. This spurred the development and use of other chemotherapeutic agents, including the now widely used methotrexate, which is similar to aminopterin but with fewer side effects.

Sidney Farber with a patient.

During this time, Dr. Farber and the Variety Club (a charitable organization formed by people in the entertainment industry who wished to offer financial help for scientific efforts) launched the Children’s Cancer Research Fund in order to raise money for childhood cancers. They found a little boy by the name of Einar Gustafson with a rare form of lymphoma and nicknamed him “Jimmy” in order to protect his privacy. Jimmy was then featured on a radio show in which the show’s host asked listeners to send funds for the Children’s Cancer Research Fund, and Jimmy was able to help the foundation raise $231,000 in only 8 minutes. The Children’s Cancer Research Fund was later renamed the Jimmy Fund, and the Children’s Cancer Research Foundation, which funded Dr. Farber’s clinic in Boston, later started treating patients of all ages and became the Sidney Farber Cancer Center and then later the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

In the 50’s and 60’s, Dr. Farber made even more advances in cancer research, which also included the concept of “total care”, in which a variety of services are offered for cancer patients and their caregivers, including clinical care, nutrition, social work, and counseling -- all in one place.

Throughout the rest of his life, Dr. Farber continued to raise funds for cancer research, and between 1957 and 1967 the annual budget of the National Cancer Institute had increased from $48 million to $178 million.

Dr. Farber passed away from cardiac arrest while working in his office in 1973 at the age of 70. His tireless efforts and continuous research to create new and innovative ways for treating cancer have saved millions of lives all over the world. He most definitely deserves his recognition as one of the greatest scientists to have ever lived. 

ClermontRadiology.com