Sidney Farber, Cancer Authority, Named to Wolbach Professorship

Dr. Sidney Farber, professor of Pathology and Director of Research at the Children's Cancer Research Foundation, has been appointed the first incumbent of the S. Burt Wolbach Professorship in Pathology at Harvard.

One of the world's leading authorities on child malignancies, Farber has made significant contributions to cancer research and child care.

His discovery of several chemicals that temporarily limit the growth of cancer cells in 1947 was a pathbreaker in the use of drugs for cancer control in children. Later, he found other drugs that killed spreading cancer cells and could be combined in treatment with radiotherapy.

In some cases this form of treatment has caused complete disappearance of the cancer, with the patient still surviving as many as ten years later (1967); this was the first time that any form of spreading cancer in a child could be destroyed with a high degree of regularity by any method of treatment.

Cancer Research

In addition to his advancement of specific drug use for leukemic children, Farber has been a prime force in the development of Federal and private cancer research and cancer control.

In 1948 he established the Children's Cancer Research Foundation, the first hospital unit devoted exclusively to the care of young cancer patients. Since then he has coordinated extensive research programs on cancer chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy.

Farber, who has won a high reputation and considerable honors in world health circles, has been a frequent consultant to Congressional committees and national advisory councils on public health in general.

He is the president-elect of the American Cancer Society; last year he received the prestigious Albert Lasker Clinical Research Award. Farber has been professor of Pathology for 20 years and has been on the Medical School Faculty since 1929. The Wolbach professorsrip is in honor of the former pathologist-in-chief at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital from 1917 until 1947.