A detour or a shortcut? Pathology laboratories in cancer treatment centres
Transcript of A detour or a shortcut? Pathology laboratories in cancer treatment centres
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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A detour or a shortcut?
Pathology laboratories in cancer treatment centres Tricia Close-Koenig
Based on a study of a pathology laboratory in Strasbourg, this paper investigates the
relationship between radiotherapists, surgeons and pathologists in cancer treatment in
the early twentieth century. The guidelines that determined the administration of the
first cancer treatment centres in France (les Centres Anticancéreux) endorsed
multidisciplinary collaboration. I investigate why the pathology laboratory dominated
cancer diagnosis in France in the interwar period and how this subsequently led to
pathologists acting as key members of the cancer treatment unit. I also situate the
French model alongside cancer treatment centres in other European countries.
Cancer, a scourge at the turn of the century alongside tuberculosis, syphilis,
diphtheria and alcoholism, mobilized both medical and political actors. As a cause of
death in western countries cancer was, statistically, on the rise. Cancer received
much attention and the fight against it became a national priority, but it was not always
on the national level that cancer treatment and research were structured: the history
of cancer treatment is rich in local, national and international medical and political
exchange.1 The history of the war on cancer is a history of public health propaganda,2
of clinical trials,3 of screening and prevention,4 but also of hospital reorganisation5 and
of retribution within medical hierarchies.6 These latter dimensions involve medical
technicians, laboratory services, and, simply, questions concerning how to get the job
done – that is, treating the cancer efficiently.
Cancer treatment in hospitals and specialized centres was not a uniform or
internationally regulated practice in the interwar period. In many cases, surgery and
radiotherapy were conflicting practices, or, more precisely, surgeons and
radiotherapists, and other medical specialists, were in conflict over which treatment
was best. In 1923, France became one of the first countries to implement national
standards and guidelines for cancer centres. To understand how the pathology
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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laboratory came to dominate cancer diagnosis and direct cancer therapy in France
requires: a) knowledge of the role of teamwork in wartime medicine in France, b) a
sense of how the interactions between doctor and patient changed in the first decades
of the twentieth century, and c) knowledge of what pathologists were doing. The story
of how teamwork was introduced to cancer treatment is essential as it links together a
number of key actors, each representing the conflicting medical specialisations. A
sense of doctor-patient interactions is needed to give the organizational history depth
by propping it against medical practices. The details of what pathologists was doing
are the substance of my case study, as they reveal how pathologists contributed to
the consultation and thereby provided a shortcut in the treatment enterprise.
This paper is divided into six parts. I begin with recent discussions of
specialisation tensions in cancer treatment. Then I detail the history of cancer
treatment and radiotherapy in Strasbourg, as well as the implementation of regional
cancer centres in France. The teamwork approach was central to these centres and I
trace its roots from the First World War to its endorsement by the Cancer Commission
in the early 1920s. The fourth section steps away from the historical account to
provide an overview of the sequence of medical consultation, diagnosis, and
treatment in routine medical practice. The fifth section ties the changes in medical
practice to what was happening in the pathology laboratory at the time. In my study of
the pathology laboratory in Strasbourg, I have found evidence of a new type of activity
that corresponded with the founding of the cancer treatment centre in the mid-1920s.
The reports from the pathology laboratory illustrate how it contributed to, and
ultimately led, cancer treatment efforts. Finally, an overview of practices in other
nations provides a broader view of the hierarchies in cancer treatment and pinpoints
the role of pathologists alongside other actors engaged in cancer research and
treatment.
“Who was to have jurisdiction over the cancer patient?”7
The question at the heart of my inquiry is similar to that of Ornella Moscucci and John
Pickstone in recent articles.8 Moscucci states:
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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“As the new radiation techniques found a niche in cancer therapy, questions
arose as to who should determine and carry out treatment. The problem was
usually formulated in terms of effectiveness and expertise, but the underlying
issue was one of control. Who was to have jurisdiction over the cancer
patient?”9
Moscucci concentrates on radiologists and gynaecologists, amongst those to claim
their stakes, while Pickstone considers medical oncologists (who practice
chemotherapy) and clinical oncologists, or radiotherapists, alongside surgeons.
Moscucci has shown that radiologists developed X-ray therapy but that
gynaecologists came to adopt radiation therapy in their own practices. Louisa
Martindale, for example, shared the opinion of her mentors in Freiberg that the
gynaecologist’s diagnostic expertise was the key to success and therefore should be
administering the treatments. The question of dominance of the specialist (radiologist,
radiotherapist or gynaecologist) was more complex for radium therapy as it was the
surgeon who controlled the insertion of the radium into tumours. To a certain extent,
the approach adopted by the London Radium Institute, as well as the Manchester
Radium Institute, sidestepped this debate by not deciding the patient’s treatment. That
is, diagnosis and follow-up care were left to the referring doctor and the treatment
itself to those at the Institute.
The mediations between surgeons and radiotherapists seem more muddled
than those between gynaecologists and radiotherapists, as they varied at different
institutions and for different types of cancers. Pickstone emphasizes the historical
priority of surgical approaches. From the late nineteenth century, surgery was the
established remedy for accessible cancers. Radiotherapies, and other alternatives,
were introduced for inoperable cases. As an example, the Manchester Radium
Institute was promoted by a surgeon in order to avoid “chopping out the tongue and
other parts.”10 Similarly, at the Middlesex Hospital in London, radium therapy for
uterine and breast cancers was developed for the inoperable, but later came to be
offered as an alternative to surgery. Pickstone delineates this liberal model where “all
significant hospitals had surgical radium therapy; X-ray therapy was an annex to
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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diagnostic radiology, and radiologists did not control beds.”11 By the 1920s, however,
centralized schemes, where “all radium treatment and most X-ray treatment was to be
given in specialist regional or national institutions which might also be responsible for
major cancer surgery,” were developed.12 There were teams of specialists working
together in these establishments: “pathologists, diagnostic radiologists,
radiotherapists, and surgeons would all be experts on cancer and its treatment (…)
along with physicists and statisticians and special nurses.”13 Moscucci and Pickstone
both stress the general advocacy of teamwork in the interwar period.14 I would like to
develop the role and significance of teamwork in French cancer treatment. As
Pickstone acknowledges, “The nearest approach on paper was the plan in France,
after the Great War, for regional cancer centres that would include surgery.”15
“I brought the radium back to Strasbourg in my pocket”16
In France, aside from some rudimentary equipment in Paris and radiotherapy units
installed in Lyon and Montpellier during the First World War, most hospitals did not
have other cancer treatment facilities than surgery. Patrice Pinell has argued that
France initially lagged behind the United States, England and Germany in this respect
but that the situation was quickly reversed in the post-war years.17
From about 1910, Strasbourg housed radiotherapy services in the radiology
facilities at the Strasbourg hospital.18 The facilities were constricted to say the least.
The radiology service was installed at the upper floor of the building. It consisted of a
miniscule laboratory, closets for storage and for developing the X-ray images, a large
room for X-ray imaging and a small room for radiotherapy.19 The radiotherapy
services were used initially for inoperable cancer cases and in this room, cancer
patients were bandaged, biopsies were taken, blood work done, as well as the
radiotherapy treatment carried out.
Auguste Gunsett, the director of the radiology facilities in Strasbourg and later
the director of the cancer centre, had initially been interested in specialising in
gynaecology and dermatology. Gunsett first learned of the promising effects of radium
for skin cancers while at a dermatology conference in Rome.20 Upon his return to
Strasbourg, in collaboration with gynaecology and dermatology professors, he raised
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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funds to purchase enough radium to treat skin and uterine cancers. In 1913, Gunsett,
accompanied by a professor of dermatology, went to Armet-de-Lisle in Nogent-sur-
Marne in France (Strasbourg was German at the time) and brought the radium back in
his pocket.21 The radium therapy was run as a private service independent of the
hospital.
After the armistice, Gunsett emphasized that the quarters were cramped, the
equipment in poor shape, and the radioprotection measures insufficient.22 The
hospital’s financial situation did not allow immediate renovation or expansion of the
facilities, but the radiotherapy services continued to operate. In 1922, Paul Strauss,
Minister of Hygiene, Social Assistance and Welfare, decreed that regional cancer
treatment centres would be a priority in public health measures. The first step was the
creation of the Commission du Cancer (Cancer Commission) dedicated to
coordinating the needed measures of aetiology, pathology, clinical study, therapeutics
and prophylaxis of cancer.23 This Cancer Commission consisted of 84 medical
doctors, administrators of health services, members of the Académie de médecine
and one physicist, Marie Curie.24 The majority were Parisian. Three were from
Strasbourg: Dr Berthelot from the Institut d’hygiène et bactériologie, Professor Pierre
Masson, director of the Institut d’anatomie pathologique, and Professor Auguste
Sartory, who held the chair of bacteriology at the Faculté de pharmacie. The cancer
centres were to be regional and to embrace treatment, teaching and research.25 As
such, a centre could not be opened anywhere or by anyone and stringent conditions
were to be met:: the city had to have a medical school; the centre had to be lodged in
existent buildings; the hospitalisation of cancer patients was secondary; radiotherapy
instruments (min. 200 000 volts) and radium (min. 200 mg) had to be at hand; and the
personnel had to include the teaching staff at the medical school.26 In November
1923, the Centre regional de lutte anticancéreuse (Regional Centre for the Fight
against Cancer) was established in Strasbourg.27 As a regional centre, it was to
receive cancer patients from the Bas-Rhin, the Haut-Rhin, Moselle, the territory of
Belfort, the Vosges, Haute-Saône, as well as Luxembourg, see Figure 1. By 1925,
there were fourteen Regional Cancer Centres in France.
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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Lille
RouenCaen
Rennes
Nantes
Angers
Bordeaux
Toulouse
ClermontFerrand
Montpellier
Marseille
Nice
Lyon
Dijon
Strasbourg
NancyReimsParis
VillejuifSaint Cloud
Figure 1. A map of France illustrating the locations of Regional cancer centres. The map is divided into the twenty-one regions of France. The red dots represent the fourteen Centres Anticancéreux opened before 1925. The blue dots represent those after 1925. The shaded yellow and green areas in the insert illustrates the initial constituency under the jurisdiction of the Strasbourg centre (Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, Vosges, Belfort Territory, Haute-Saône, Moselle and Luxembourg). Once the Regional centre opened in Nancy in 1925, Strasbourg’s constituency was reduced to the shaded green area (Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, Belfort Territory and Moselle).
Teamwork
Not only did the Cancer Commission require that the Regional Cancer Centre
personnel consisted of medical school staff, but the competence that had to be united
in order to guarantee adequate treatment of each patient were detailed:
“1. An anatomo-pathologist to determine the nature of the cancer to be
treated;
2. A surgeon to take care of curative and palliative interventions;
3. A medical-electrician, with a thorough knowledge of deep radiotherapy and
brachytherapy, to direct these applications;
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4. A physicist who can contribute, regularly or from time to time, advice on
the operation of the instruments for treatment and measurement.”28
Consequently, the treatment of patients in the regional centres required reconsidering
the organization and collaboration within the hospitals. The structure had to involve
interactions between pathology, surgery, radiotherapy and medical physics. Such
team efforts were not unique to France. As mentioned above, there were for example
incidences of group meetings at the Westminster Hospital in London and the Christie
in Manchester.29 Furthermore, as Pickstone notes, the advocacy of teamwork, as
integral to centralization, was not limited to medicine in the interwar period.30
Perhaps the most vocal spokesman for the importance of teamwork in cancer
treatment was Claudius Regaud.31 In 1913 Regaud joined Emile Roux and Marie
Curie in organising the Radium Institute in Paris.32 They were still soliciting support to
further develop the Institute, but the efforts and plans were interrupted by the war.33
Regaud’s war experience is important to his later policies.34 During the First World
War, Regaud brought together a number of colleagues to improve medical facilities at
the front lines.35 The Groupement de Services Chirurgicaux et Scientifiques initially
stationed in Prouilly and later in Bouleuse, near Reims, comprised medical services,
radiology, bacteriology, haematology and pathology laboratories, alongside surgery
facilities. Boundaries disappeared as doctors, civilians, military, surgeons, radiologists
and biologists acted in collaboration. Regaud brought together a team chosen for their
competency: René Leriche, surgeon; Jean Louis Roux-Berger, surgeon; Thomas
Nogier, medical physicist/radiologist; and Pierre Masson, pathologist. The interaction
within this group was not limited to the war years. Nogier was a friend of Regaud’s
from before the war and had introduced him to radiology techniques in Lyon.36 In fact,
a number of these men may have crossed paths in Lyon, where Leriche, Roux-
Berger, Nogier and Regaud had all spent some time, as had Justin Godart, the
parliamentary under-secretary who appointed Regaud to his war post. Masson was at
the Pasteur Institute in Paris immediately before the war and may have met Regaud
there. In the post-war years, the cancer clinic founded by Regaud at the Radium
Institute employed these acquaintances from the war.37 Both Leriche and Masson
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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subsequently held chairs at Strasbourg’s medical school, Masson from 1919 and
Leriche from 1924.38
The resemblance of the list of specialities of the leading members of the
Groupement de Services Chirurgicaux et Scientifiques to that of the expertise required
by the Cancer Commission for the organisation of the Regional Cancer Centres is
remarkable. Both put laboratory pathologists, surgeons, radiologists and physicists on
equal footing. This was not a coincidence. A number of those who participated in
multi-disciplinary military medical teams were also appointed members of the Cancer
Commission and their personal experiences likely contributed to the conditions set by
the commission.
A further element that influenced the conditions set forth was the pre-existing
radiotherapy centres. In 1922, there were three prominent centres that may have
been models for the new regional centres. The cancer treatment unit at the Paul-
Brousse Hospices in Villejuif was founded by Gustave Roussy in 1921. Here research
focused on pathological anatomy was situated alongside the clinic. After radium had
been purchased in 1922, the unit also offered treatment.39 At La Salpêtrière and
Tenon Hospitals, cancer treatment units were annexed to the general surgery wards.
Here, the supremacy of surgeons (over radiotherapists) was notable, and there was
no particular interest in research.40 Finally, the cancer centre organised by Regaud in
1919 as an extension of the Radium Institute, which became the Curie Foundation in
1921, had multiple objectives: teaching, treatment and research.41 At the Foundation
all actors – clinicians, radiotherapists, surgeons, physicists or pathologists – were
complementary and mutually respected. Pinell has suggested that the final model for
the Regional centres was effectively a hybrid of the Parisian examples, as well as
those found in the provinces, in Lyon, Montpellier and Strasbourg.42
Between 1923 and 1925 fourteen regional cancer centres, under the designation
Centres Anticancéreux, were established. Practice in these centres did not always
follow the guidelines.43 Despite the numerous ways of adapting existing facilities to
meet the Cancer Commission’s requirements, the general notion of a multi-
disciplinary team to provide assessment of and treatment to cancer patients was a
national model that was exported. As Charles Hayter, in a recent historical study of
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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radiotherapy in Canada, states: “The French system became an influential model for
other countries.”44 This may be attributed, in part, to the relatively early organisation of
cancer treatment and research on a national scale in France. In addition, Claudius
Regaud was an active spokesman, present at numerous international events
promoting the teamwork approach.45 Regaud also welcomed hundreds of visiting
doctors from abroad.46
I will return to the international dimension in the final section, but now allow me to
stray to the medical consulting room and look at what the patient encountered before
entering the cancer treatment framework. The digression is intended to illustrate what
the multi-disciplinary medical approach for cancer treatment implied for medical
practice. The models I will draw elicit the title of the paper by asking if the insertion of
the laboratory was a detour. In the fifth section, the role of pathologists, of teamwork
and of the insertion of the laboratory will be brought together.
Interactions between doctor and patient
In the nineteenth century, the characteristic meeting with the doctor was relatively
straightforward.47 The medical consultation involved the medical doctor and the ailing
patient. If we overlook the role of surgeons, pharmacists and less-reputable healers,
as well as family members and payment modalities, a diagram of the interaction might
consist of a straight line, or a direct path, between the doctor and the patient, see
Figure 2. This illustrates the prominence of the doctor who relied largely on
experience and individual judgement in making diagnosis and prognosis. As such,
cancers were diagnosed from their gross appearance and clinical behaviour.
doctor
patient
Figure 2. A (very simplified) caricature of the interaction between doctor and ailing patient in a 19th century medical consultation.
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In the latter half of the nineteenth century, what was a direct path was redirected or
detoured through the laboratory. Bacteriology and the aetiology of infectious diseases
introduced the laboratory as a place for diagnosis. A patient with suspicious
symptoms could be sent to the lab for differential diagnosis in order to direct proper
treatment.48 The lab contributed to therapeutic decision-making by identifying the
disease microscopically.49 By the mid-twentieth century, the detour through the
laboratory was routine; that is, lab analyses, alongside other tests, were performed
with or without suspicious symptoms, notably on hospitalized patients.50 Sometime
between the introduction and implementation of histo-pathological examinations for
cancer diagnosis at the turn of the century and mid-century, the laboratory became
lodged between doctor and patient. Claudius Regaud’s statement in 1926 is an
indication of this movement:
“In the past, it was not imagined that the executants (who were exclusively
surgeons) would one day need the intervention of specialty laboratories. This
is no longer the case today. Histology, haematology, bacteriology, physics
have become very useful, at times necessary to apply the right
radiotherapeutic methods.”51
Again, a simplified diagram of the interaction thus integrates the insertion of the
laboratory, see Figure 3. The addition of the laboratory to the medical scheme was
accompanied by a number of transformations which I will not detail, including medical
specialisation, medical secretaries, nurses, medical technologies and machines,
patient histories and filing systems, payments systems, medical insurance, public
medical coverage, etc. Instead I wish to point out the route of the information: the
laboratory result is returned to the doctor who redirects and reinterprets the analysis to
the patient, see Figure 4. The doctor, who requests the examination, remains the
authoritative figure in this detour.52
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doctor
patient
pathology
lab
Figure 3. A (very simplified) caricature of the interaction between doctor and ailing patient in 20th century medical consultation. The pathology lab plays an important role in cancer diagnosis.
doctor
patient
pathology
lab
Figure 4. A (very simplified) caricature of the interaction between doctor and ailing patient in 20th century medical consultation. The pathology lab plays an important role in cancer diagnosis, but the medical doctor is the authoritative figure in the exchange.
I have outlined these simple interactions as an illustration of changes in medical
practice. I have referred to the diversion through the laboratory as a detour. But was
this really a diversion or a detour in the sense that it was unnecessary or inefficient?
The activity of the pathologist in my study of the pathology laboratory in Strasbourg
elucidates this.
Pathologists: important team members A 1920s publication titled Centre Régional de Lutte Contre le Cancer: Centre Paul
Strauss briefly outlines the organisation of Strasbourg’s regional cancer centre.53 In
the one-page description, the organisation is detailed in nine points. (The remainder of
the brochure consists of twenty-one photos of the centre.) The first gives the location
of the centre on the hospital grounds.54 The second lists the rooms in the centre. The
third states: “The biopsies are performed at the Pathological Anatomy Institute of the
medical school.” The fourth and fifth note the technical details of the apparatus. The
sixth mentions that surgical operations are performed in the medical school surgery
wards. The seventh says that hospitalisation may be in the centre itself or in the
hospital. The eighth assures that the treatment of every patient is a collaborative effort
of medical professors. The last point describes teaching, which includes instruction at
the medical school and an upgrading course that is offered every two years. This list
can be taken as exemplar of Auguste Gunsett’s conception of the centre’s strong
points and of what is needed to treat cancer patients. It is interesting and revealing to
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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note that the pathologist appears in number three and precedes the technical details,
the surgical facilities, as well as the accommodation situation. This list may be
interpreted as implying that treatment is the priority and teaching an afterthought. It
also provides evidence of the primordial role of pathologists and the pathology
laboratory in cancer treatment and of Gunsett’s union with the Pathological Anatomy
Institute and its director, Pierre Masson. The union was also a financial one, the
cancer centre compensating the pathology lab 2000 French francs annually.55
Upon the inauguration of the cancer centre in Strasbourg in 1923, the
laboratories collaborating for cancer treatment and research were threefold: biopsies
were examined for practitioners in the surrounding regions and for the centre at the
Pathological Anatomy Institute by Masson; bacteriology analyses were performed at
Strasbourg’s Pasteur Institute by Amédée Borrel; and further research was conducted
at the Medical Physics Institute by Fred Vlés.56 These three laboratories effectively
participated in meeting the triple objective of the centre: treatment by providing initial
diagnosis and follow-up tests, teaching as these institutes were an integral part of the
medical school, and research as the tissue samples not only provided patient
information, but also furnished laboratory samples for medical students and research
material for professors and research assistants.
Furthermore, there is no evidence of conflict between the team’s medical
specialists. On the contrary, the collaborative publications are numerous between the
director of the Pathological Anatomy Institute, Pierre Masson, and the directors of
surgery, Louis Sencert and René Leriche,57 as are those between the director of the
cancer centre, Auguste Gunsett, and surgeons René Simon and André Boeckel.58
It was the pathologist who effectively bestowed the consulting doctor, the patient
and the radiotherapist with imperative information about the patient and their diseased
tissue. The histo-pathological examination identified microscopic structure of the
tissue with benign and malignant tissue types; it also distinguished the radiosensitive
from the radioresistant, and it provided a means of monitoring the evolution of the
tissue.59 The information imparted in the histo-pathological examination allowed the
treatment to be more exact, thereby saving time and expenses for the specialists and
the centre, as well as limiting the suffering of the patient. That pathologists had the
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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tools and the means for doing this was due to several decades of research and study
of the microscopic structure of diseased tissue. Pathologists had a long-running
interest in cancers and the background to recognize and classify tissue structures
morphologically.
The laboratory organisation and activity within the Pathological Anatomy Institute
changed after 1923. The laboratory journals that record the examinations illustrate the
rise in the number of biopsies and surgical samples.60 The samples came from the
whole region that this regional cancer centre was to serve. Furthermore, the
examination report provides details on what type of lesion was observed (i.e. a
diagnosis); at times the reports refer to treatment undergone indicating whether it was
successful or not, and others indicate radiotherapy advice with straightforward
recommendations, such as: “Tumour likely radioresistant. If radiotherapy is
undertaken, use strong doses.”61; “Tumour likely radiosensitive.”62; “Radiosensitivity
low, radium therapy is recommended.”63; “A radical operation is necessary.”64
Although the pathologists did not meet the patient, they provided vital information on
the patient’s condition, thereby warranting and validating the detour through the
pathology laboratory.
European developments
We will now look at a few cases outside France, but before doing so, it is important to
emphasize that Claudius Regaud, Gustave Roussy and Charles Bouchard, all heavily
involved in the first cancer research and treatment centres in the Paris region, were
pathologists. Furthermore, the Pasteur Institute strongly advocated laboratory work.
The influence of non-surgeons in mobilising units that merged research and therapy
for cancer, I argue, is significant to the development of the type of centres that were
found in France. Pickstone has evoked the idea of path dependency to trace such
tendencies and the historical rooted-ness of protocols.65 The potency of the teamwork
in France, for example, is in strong contrast with the surgeon-dominated model of the
United States.
Cancer research laboratories were founded across the United Kingdom from the
turn of the century: Middlesex Hospital Cancer Research laboratories in 1900,
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
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Imperial Cancer Research Fund in 1902, Manchester University Cancer Research
Lab in 1903,66 Cancer Hospital Research Institute in 1909, Glasgow Cancer Hospital
Research Department in 1910, the Radium Institute in London in 1911, the Radium
Institute in Manchester in 1914.67 As indicated by their names, with exception of the
latter two, these were largely places of research. The two Radium Institutes provided
therapy, but they housed no diagnostic services. Patients were diagnosed by their
consulting physicians and went to the institutes uniquely for the recommended
treatments.68
In the interwar period, cancer centres in England were often directed by
pathologists or radiotherapists as surgery remained within hospital surgery wards.69
Nevertheless, special cancer hospitals in London, such as the Marsden, St.
Bartholomew’s, the Middlesex and the Westminster, were reputed for both cancer
surgery and radiotherapy.70 As mentioned above, there is also evidence of team
meetings at some of these institutes.
Another notable development in the interwar period was the establishment of the
National Radium Trust and Radium Commission of 1929, which acted as a central
dispensary of radium. It was considered a step towards a centrally controlled system,
but Regaud criticized that it also made it possible for under-experienced physicians to
try radiotherapy.71 The Christie cancer hospital, established in the late 1930s, was,
however, considered an exemplary regional service, on a par with centres in France.72
In Sweden, providing therapy was a priority for those who undertook cancer
research as early as 1899.73 The first institutions include the Roentgen Institute in
Stockholm from 1899, the Serafimer Hospital in Stockholm and the hospital in Lund
from 1908, the Radiumhemmet at Schéelegatan in Stockholm from 1910, the hospital
in Gothenburg from 1910, and the Radiumhemmet at Fjällgatan in Stockholm from
1916. The Radiumhemmet was exemplary of a regional research and treatment
centre. It was funded privately (by the Cancer Society in Stockholm) until the end of
1918, but the government contributed by covering patients’ transportation costs until it
became publicly funded in the early 1920s. Richard Pearce, a representative of the
Rockefeller Foundation, claimed the Radiumhemmet (as well as the Radium Institute
in Paris) was different from other cancer centres not least because they hosted the
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“few competent groups of scientists devoting themselves exclusively to cancer.”74 The
Radiumhemmet was founded by the radiologist Gösta Forssell and a surgeon, John
Berg, but they considered radiation physics, biology and pathology to be equally
important as radiology and surgery. The team came to include a physicist and a
pathologist, and pathology laboratories for research and for diagnosis were integrated
into the Radiumhemmet. In addition, early radiotherapy services outside the
Radiumhemmet were offered in teaching hospitals.
The Radiumhemmet is comparable to the regional centres developed in France in
the early 1920s, and like the Radium Institute in Paris the Radiumhemmet received
visitors from other nations who were interested in developing radiotherapy treatment
centres. For example, Dr Manninger retained the Radiumhemmet as a model for the
Eötvös Loránd Radium and Roentgen Institute in Hungary.75 This centre, opened in
1936, only treated cancer patients beyond the operable stage.
Not unlike the United Kingdom, cancer research centres in Germany
outnumbered treatment centres in the first decades of the twentieth century: Abteilung
für Krebsforschung am Königlichen Institut für experimentelle Therapie in Frankfurt-
am-Main from 1901, Institut für Krebsforschung der Charité in Berlin from 1903,
Institut für Krebsforschung in Heidelberg from 1906, Forschungsinstitut für Krebs und
Tuberkulose in Hamburg from 1912.76 However, perhaps even more than in the
United Kingdom, these institutions concentrated on research. The exception was the
terminal phase treatment that was offered at the Charité in Berlin from 1918 (this was
also the only centre associated with a medical school) and in Heidelberg. It is
suggested that treatment, surgical or other, took place in hospitals. The role of
pathologists in diagnosis was, however, minimal, and few tissue samples were sent
for diagnosis: “Only very few, one could say the remaining rubbish, were sent to the
institute for histological diagnosis.”77
The Netherlands Cancer Institute opened in 1913 was co-founded as a joint effort
by a surgeon and a pathologist.78 It is interesting that they, like Dr Manninger of
Hungary, were professors and thereby situated somewhat closer to the forefront of
research and teaching than most clinicians. The connection to a medical faculty was
also present in Iceland, where all suspected cancers even before the First World War
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
16
were diagnosed by histo-pathological techniques at the pathology laboratory at the
medical school in Reykjavik.79 Samples or excised tumours were sent to Reykjavik
from all over Iceland, while radiotherapy was offered at the Landspitalinn in Reykjavik
and cancer surgery at the general hospitals in Reykjavik and Akureyri. For other
countries, such as Norway, I have found no evidence of cancer treatment facilities that
pre-date the Norwegian Radium Hospital that opened in 1961.
The Strasbourg case and the various European examples put forward in this
article demonstrates that in the interwar period, before mobilization for cancer
treatment became an international issue, whether or not a pathologist was consulted
depended on who controlled radiotherapy in the institution.80 These were often the
same persons who opened the hospital or centre to alternatives to cancer surgery,
and tended to be surgeons and/or pathologists. Surgeons had a long-standing
position in cancer treatment, as tumour extirpation had been the dominant method in
cancer treatment since the late nineteenth century. Pathologists had been studying
the cellular structure of cancerous tissue from the diseased and the deceased since
the mid-nineteenth century. Efforts to organise cancer treatment facilities in the early
twentieth century involved both competition and collaboration between the two
medical specialists; pathologists often joining forces with radiotherapists.
Conclusions
Since the mid-nineteenth century the pathology lab has been a place of research and
of post-mortem study. Although biopsies had long been acknowledged as a useful
(and even necessary) diagnostic method, this acknowledgement was not translated
into practice. The passage of a patient’s tissue sample through a laboratory was
effectively considered a detour by physicians and surgeons. If cancer was suspected,
the tumour or diseased tissue was surgically removed when possible. If it was
inaccessible, the physician prescribed treatment for the pain.81
This pattern changed in the first three decades of the twentieth century in a
process that was not only medically driven, but also political and social.82 The rise in
numbers of examinations performed for diagnosis by the pathologist at the
Pathological Anatomy Institute of the Medical School in Strasbourg demonstrates the
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
17
changes. In France, the teamwork approach was strongly advocated and supported
by the network of those who had participated in multi-disciplinary medical war units.
The process was not the same throughout Europe, but the different approaches to
cancer treatment became known via international conferences and visiting doctors
and scholars.
The proximity of pathologists to cancer centres influenced how radiotherapy
was embraced. If pathologists were involved, there was a tendency to treat surgery
and radiotherapy as equal options. If pathologists were absent, surgery remained the
main method of treating cancer. More precisely, when a histo-pathological
examination was performed, the information spoke to radiotherapists. In cases where
cancer and treatment were monitored by histo-pathological examinations, pathologists
and radiotherapists accumulated evidence of what had effect upon different cancers.
The pathologists had this morphological database so to speak at their fingertips,
rendering them indispensable. The journey to the laboratory, therefore, was not a
detour if it provided vital information for choosing a therapeutic path (or avoiding one,
if the growth was benign). The time saved for radiotherapists (or surgeons), the
comfort granted to the healthy or alleviated patient and the money saved by the
increased efficiency of the system transformed the extra route from a detour into a
shortcut.
1 Cf. Cantor, David. “Cancer.” In Bynum, W. F. and Roy Porter. Companion
Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine, Volume 1. Routledge, London and New
York 1993: 537-56; Bud, Robert. “Strategy in American cancer research after
World War II: a case study.” Social Studies of Science 8 (1978): 425-459; Maulitz,
Russell. “Rudolf Virchow, Julius Cohnheim and the program of pathology” Bulletin
of the History of Medicine 52 (1978): 162-182; Richards, Evelleen. Vitamin C and
Cancer: Medicine or Politics? Macmillan, Basingstoke and London 1991. 2 Cf. Cantor, David. “Uncertain Enthusiasm: The American Cancer Society, Public
Education and the Problems of the Movie, 1921-1960.” Bulletin of the History of
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18
Medicine 81 (2007): 39-69; Krueger, Gretchen Marie. “‘For Jimmy and the Boys
and Girls of America’: Publicizing Childhood Cancers in Twentieth Century
Europe.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 81 (2007): 70-93; Toon, Elizabeth.
“‘Cancer as the General Population Knows It’: Knowledge, Fear, and Lay
Education in 1950s Britain.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 81 (2007): 116-138;
Pinell, Patrice. Naissance d'un fléau. Histoire de la lutte contre le cancer en France
(1890-1940). Editions Métailié, Paris 1992, esp. Chapter 9. 3 Cf. Keating, Peter and Alberto Cambrosio. “Cancer Clinical Trials: The
Emergence and Development of a New Style of Practice.” Bulletin of the History of
Medicine 81 (2007): 197-223; Timmermann, Carsten. “As Depressing as It Was
Predictable? Lung Cancer, Clinical Trials, and the Medical Research Council in
Postwar Britain.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 81 (2007): 312-334; Kutcher,
Gerald. “Cancer Clinical Trials and the Transfer of Medical Knowledge: Metrology,
Contestation and Local Practice” In Timmermann, Carsten and Julie Andersen.
Devices and Designs. Medical Technologies in Historical Perspectives. Palgrave
Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York 2006: 212-230; Löwy, Ilana. Between
Bench and Bedside: Science, healing, and interleukin-2 in a cancer ward. Harvard
University Press, Cambridge 1996. 4 Cf. Clarke, Adele E. and Monica J. Casper. “From Simple Technology to Complex
Arena: Classification of Pap Smears, 1917-1990.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly
(new series) 10 (1996): 601-623; Löwy, Ilana. “Breast Cancer and the ‘Materiality
of Risk’: The Rise of Morphological Prediction.” Bulletin of the History of Science 81
(2007): 241-266. 5 Cf. Murphy, Caroline C. S.. “From Friedenheim to hospice: a century of cancer
hospitals.” In Granshaw, Lindsay and Roy Porter. The Hospital in History.
Routledge, London and New York 1989; Keating, Peter and Alberto Cambrosio.
Biomedical Platforms. Realigning the normal and the pathological in late- twentieth
century medicine. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 2003. 6 Clow, Barbara. Negociating Disease: Power and Cancer Care, 1900-1950.
McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston 2001; Pickstone, John.
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19
“Contested Cumulations: Configurations of Cancer Treatments through the
Twentieth Century.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 81 (2007): 164-196. 7 Moscucci, Ornella. “The ‘Ineffable Freemasonry of Sex’: Feminist Surgeons and
the Establishment of Radiotherapy in Early Twentieth-Century Britian.” Bulletin of
the History of Medicine 81 (2007): 150. 8 Moscucci 2007; Pickstone 2007. 9 Moscucci 2007: 150. 10 Pickstone 2007: 172. 11 Pickstone 2007: 173. 12 Pickstone 2007: 173. 13 Pickstone 2007: 173-174. 14 Pickstone 2007: 168 and 174; Moscucci 2007: 153-154. 15 Pickstone 2007: 174. 16 Gunsett, Auguste. “Les Origines du Centre anticancéreux de Strasbourg.
Quelques souvenirs lointains.” Unpublished manuscript , 1970, Archives Paul
Strauss (Translation by T.C-K.). 17 Pinell 1992. 18 On the history of the cancer treatment centre in Strasbourg: Les Centres Anti-
Cancéreux Français. Vingt-cinq ans d'activité. 1945-1970. Imprimerie le Cerf,
Rouen; Voineau, Christophe. Science, technique et médecine: une histoire de la
radiothérapie en Alsace (1913-1940). Mémoire de DEA, Université Louis Pasteur,
Strasbourg 2003; “Le centre anticancéreux de Strasbourg” Lutte Contre le Cancer
54 (1936): 268-274; F. C. “Le centre régional anticancéreux de Strasbourg” Lutte
Contre le Cancer 31 (1931): 860-864; Marchal, Géo. “Le Centre Régional
Anticancéreux de Strasbourg” La Vie en Alsace 1 (1931): 13-17; Héran, Jacques.
L’histoire de la médecine à Strasbourg. La Nuée Bleue, Strasbourg 1997. 19 Gunsett, Auguste. “L’Evolution des différents services de l’hôpital civil de 1918 à
1929: Service central de radiologie.” 1930. Archives Administratives de l’hôpital
civil de Strasbourg. 20 Gunsett 1970. 21 Gunsett 1970.
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22 Gunsett 1930. 23 Arrêté ministeriel de 31 mai 1922. 24 “Commission du Cancer.” La lutte contre le cancer 2 (1923): 101-108. 25 “Commission du cancer.” La lutte contre le cancer 2 (1923): 101. 26 “Commission du cancer.” La lutte contre le cancer 2 (1923): 104-107. 27 Arrêré ministeriel de 19 novembre 1923. 28 “Commission du cancer.” La lutte contre le cancer 2(1923): 107-108 (Translation
by T. C-K). 29 Pickstone 2007: 178. 30 Pickstone 2007: 174. 31 Hayter, Charles. An Element of Hope. Radium and the Response to Cancer in
Canada, 1900-1940. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston
2005: 81-84. 32 Lenz, Maurice. “The Early Workers in Clinical Radiotherapy of Cancer at the
Radium Institute of the Curie Foundation, Paris, France” Cancer 32 (1973): 519-
523; Pinell 1992: 107-114. 33 Camilleri, Jean-Pierre and Jean Coursage. Les Pionniers de la Radiothérapie.
EDP Sciences, Les Ulis 2005: 89. 34 The first world war efforts also contributed to the further development of
radiotherapy apparatus (see Laugier, Alain. “Le premier siècle de la radiothérapie
en France.” Bulletin de l’Academie Nationale de la Médecine 180 (1996): 143-160);
on the distribution and training of X-ray diagnosis and therapy material (see
Camilleri and Coursage 2005: 90-92); and cancer centres are organised in Lyon
and Montpellier (see Pinell 1992: 126-131). 35 Camilleri and Coursage 2005: 92-96. 36 Pinell 1992: 110. They also published together: Regaud, C. and T. Nogier.
“Actions des rayons X très pénétrants, filters, sur le derme et l’épiderme de la
peau.” Association française pour l’avancement des sciences, 41e section (1912):
213. (Note: Patrice Pinell indicates that this was Théodore Nogier, but I have only
found trace of a Thomas Nogier.)
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37 Pinell 1922: 149. Pinell lists Henry Coutard as radiotherapist at the Gerardmer
military hospital; Octave Monod worked with Justin Godart at the Secretary of
State; René Ferroux physicist worked at Bouleuse; Jean Louis Roux-Berger was
surgeon at Bouleuse, and Mary Thurneyssen nurse at Bouleuse. 38 Héran 1997: 503-504 and 524-525. 39 Pinell 1992: 154 and 157-158. 40 Pinell 1992: 158-159. 41 Pinell 1992: 149-154; Camilleri and Coursaget 2005: Chapter 9. 42 Pinell 1992: 160 and 164. 43 For example, in Marseille the cancer treatment centre remained an annex to the
surgical unit. (Serafino, X. Le Nouveau Centre Régional de Lutte Contre le Cancer.
Marseille. Bureau d’expansion et de propaganda, Marseille: 1972. In Reims the
radiotherapy apparatus had been in the surgery unit but were integrated into a new
cancer centre, whose functioning stressed pluri-disciplinary collaboration. (Baud.
Le centre régional anticancéreux de Reims et le traitement actuel du
cancer. Matot-Braine: Reims 1925). In Nancy, the cancer centre facilities
concentrated on pathology diagnosis, radiotherapy treatment and surgery all under
one roof. (Vautrin. Organisation de la Lutte contre le Cancer. Imprimerie Berger-
Levrault, Nancy, Paris and Strasbourg 1925.) The situation in Caen seems unclear.
The centre opened in 1923, received its first patient in 1925, was officially
recognised as a regional centre in 1930, and hired a pathologist later that year,
although it seems that they may have been sending tissue samples to the
pathologist in the autopsy pavilion (Blanchemain-Bouche, Eliane. Naissance et
evolution des centres de lutte contre le cancer en France: L’exemple de Caen de
1923-1973. Origine du Centre François-Baclesse. MD thesis, Faculté de Médecine,
Université de Caen 2003). 44 Hayter 2005: 83. 45 Regaud’s international communications include the international symposium on
Cancer control at Lake Mohonk, NY, USA in 1926 (Regaud, Claudius. “What is the
value and what should be the organisation and equipment of institutions for the
treatment of cancer by radium and X-rays?” Surgery, Gynaecology and Obstetrics
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154 (1927): 116-136 (translated in French: Regaud, Claudius. “Quelle est la valeur
et quels doivent être l'organisation et l'équipement des institutions pour le
traitement du cancer par le radium et par les rayons X?” In Archives de l'Institut du
radium et de la Fondation Curie, Tome 1. Les Presses Universitaires de France,
Paris 1929: 135-161). Other destinations included: Belgium, Beyrouth, London,
Peru, Columbia, Berlin, etc. (Camilleri and Coursaget 2005: 146-147 and 151-
152). 46 “Report to Authorize the Executive Committee to appropriate up to $252,000 to
the University of Paris, 4/13/1932” RF, 1.1, 500A Université Paris Radium Institute,
Rockefeller Archive Centre 47 These caricatures are based on historical narratives, including: Rosenberg,
Charles E. “The therapeutic revolution: Medicine, meaning, and social change in
nineteenth century America.” In Vogel, Morris J. and Charles E. Rosenberg. The
therapeutic revolution: Essays in the social history of American medicine
University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1979: 21; Jewson, N. D. “The
disappearance of the sick-man from medical cosmology, 1770-1870.” Sociology 10
(1976): 228. 48 Historical studies of the medical laboratory include: Amsterdamska, Olga and
Anja Hiddinga. “The analysed body.” In Cooter, Roger and John Pickstone.
Medicine in the twentieth century. Harwood Academic Publishers, Amsterdam
2000, 417-433; Büttner, Johannes. “The origin of clinical laboratories.” European
journal of clinical chemistry and clinical biochemistry 30 (1992): 585-593; Crenner,
Christopher. “Private laboratories and medical expertise in Boston circa 1900.”In
Timmermann, Carsten and Julie Andersen. Devices and Designs. Medical
Technologies in Historical Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and
New York 2006: 61-73; Jacyna, L. S. “The laboratory and the clinic: The impact of
pathology on surgical diagnosis in the Glasgow Western Infirmary, 1875-1910.”
Bulletin of the history of medicine 62 (1988): 384-406; Lawrence, Christopher.
Rockefeller money, the laboratory and medicine in Edinburgh 1919-1930: New
science in an old country. University of Rochester Press, Rochester 2005;
Ranslant, Delphine. The clinical laboratory: A central point of medical practice
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23
hidden in the basement. Case study on the convention bound laboratories of
Strasbourg. DEA dissertation, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg 2004; Sturdy,
Steve and Roger Cooter. “Science, scientific management, and the transformation
of medicine in Britain c. 1870-1950.” History of Science 36 (1988): 421-466;
Twohig, Peter. Labour in the laboratory: Medical laboratory workers in the
Maritimes. McGill-Queen’s University Presss, Montreal and Kingston 2005;
Cunningham, Andrew and Perry Williams. The laboratory revolution in medicine.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992. 49 An example might be syphilis and the Wassermann reaction, see Fleck, Ludwik.
Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact. The University of Chicago Press,
Chicago and London 1979[1935]. 50 Keating and Cambrosio 2003. 51 Regaud, Claudius. “Quelle est la valeur et quels doivent être l'organisation et
l'équipement des institutions pour le traitement du cancer par le radium et par les
rayons X?” Archives de l'Institut du radium et de la Fondation Curie, Tome 1. Les
Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1929: 137. (Translation by T.C-K.) 52 Crenner, Christopher. Private practice in the early twentieth century medical
office of Dr. Richard Cabot. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and
London 2005. 53 Gunsett, Auguste. Centre Régional de Lutte Contre le Cancer. Internal
publication. c.1925. Archives du Centre Paul Strauss, Strasbourg. 54 The Strasbourg municipal hospital consisted of numerous buildings that were
interspersed with the medical school buildings and gardens. 55 “Enquête faite par Ch. Rives, Conseiller Référendaire à la Cour des Comptes.
1934.” DEC. Cour des Comptes. Archives Administratives de la Faculté de Médecine
de Strasbourg. 56 F. C. 1931: 861. 57 For example: Masson, Pierre and Louis Sencert. “A propos d’un cas
d’hypernéphrome métastatique.” Bulletin et Mémoires de la Société des
Chirurgiens de Paris (Mai 1923); Masson, Pierre and Louis Sencert. “Cancer des
In Transferring Public Health, Medical Knowledge and Science in the 19th and 20th Century. Conference Proceedings. Astri Andresen and Tore Grønlie (eds). Rokkansenteret, Report 2-2007, 47-65.
24
cellules interstitielles.” Bulletin de l’Association Française pour l’Etude du Cancer
(Juillet 1923). 58 For example: Gunsett, Auguste and René Simon. “Volumineux épithélioma
spino-cellulaire de maxillaire supérieur étendu au sinus maxillaire et à plus de la
moitié de la voûte du palais disparu après radiothérapie profonde.” Le médecin
d’Alsace et de Lorraine (1924): 7; Gunsett, Auguste, André Boeckel, and David
Sichel. “Technique et indications de la pneumo-pyélographie.” Le médecin
d’Alsace et de Lorraine (1931): 22. 59 These three finalities of a pathology examination were cited in literature
recapping the state of cancer treatment in the interwar period. Cf. Bard 1925;
Regaud, Claudius. “Le role du médecin sans spécialité dans le diagnostic du
cancer.” Lutte contre le cancer 10 (1925): 115-116; Regaud 1929. 60 Volume 1, 1919 – Volume 46, 1939, Régistres du Laboratoire d’Anatomie
Pathologique, Archives de l’Institut d’Anatomie Pathologique de la Faculté de
Médecine de Strasbourg. 61 18I. Biopsie d’une tumeur du maeilliaire (gauche). 1.11.1925. Volume 10,
Régistres du Laboratoire d’Anatomie Pathologique, Archives de l’Institut
d’Anatomie Pathologique de la Faculté de Médecine de Strasbourg. (Translation
by T.C-K.) 62 324I. Quelques parties du col de la matrice. 18.1.1926. Volume 10, Régistres du
Laboratoire d’Anatomie Pathologique, Archives de l’Institut d’Anatomie
Pathologique de la Faculté de Médecine de Strasbourg. 63 187J. Ulcération de la bouche. 10.7.1926. Volume 12, Régistres du Laboratoire
d’Anatomie Pathologique, Archives de l’Institut d’Anatomie Pathologique de la
Faculté de Médecine de Strasbourg. (Translation by T.C-K.) 64 503J. Tumeur du sein. 8.9.1926. Volume 12, Régistres du Laboratoire
d’Anatomie Pathologique, Archives de l’Institut d’Anatomie Pathologique de la
Faculté de Médecine de Strasbourg. (Translation by T.C-K.) 65 Pickstone 2007: 168. (Translation by T.C-K.) 66 I suspect that this is the same Cancer Pavilion that, as Pickstone mentions, had
“experimented with X rays and, when disappointed, passed its machine to the skin
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hospital.” Pickstone continues to state that the Radium Institute in Manchester
focused primarily on mouth and womb cancers, while skin cancers were treated at
the skin hospital. (Pickstone 2007: 171) 67 Austoker, Joan. A History of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. 1902-1986.
Oxford University Press, Oxford 1988; Murphy 1989; Pickstone, 2007. 68 Pickstone 2007: 176. 69 Pickstone 2007: 169. 70 Pickstone 2007: 176. 71 Regaud 1929: 142. 72 Pickstone 2007: 177. 73 Larsson, Lars-Gunnar. “Organization of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology in
Sweden.” Acta Oncologica 34 (1995): 1011-1015; Berven, Elis. “The Development
and Organization of Therapeutic Radiology in Sweden.” Radiology 79 (1962): 829-
841; Pickstone 2007. 74 “Richard M. Pearce to Alan Gregg, 23/07/1929.” RF, 1.1, 500A Université Paris
Radium Institute, Rockefeller Archive Centre. 75 Vikol, J. and C. Sellei. Twenty-five Years in the Fight Against Cancer. Reports of
the State Oncological Institute. State Oncological Institute, Budapest 1966. 76 Eckart, Wolfgang U., ed. 100 Years of Organized Cancer Research - 100 Jahre
organisierte Krebsforschung. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart and New York 2000,
especially Hecker, Erich. “Historical essay on the general scientific and of an
organized national approach to the fight against cancer.” In Eckart, Wolfgang U.
100 Years of Organized Cancer Research - 100 Jahre organisierte
Krebsforschung. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart and New York 2000: 5-10; Prüll,
Cay-Rüdinger. “Disease of Cells or Disease of Patients? The Cultural Impact on
Cancer Research in German and British Pathology, 1900-1945.” In Eckart,
Wolfgang U. 100 Years of Organized Cancer Research - 100 Jahre organisierte
Krebsforschung. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart and New York 2000: 17-22; van
Helvoort, Ton. “Scalpel or Rays? The Struggle for the Cancer Patient in Pre-World
War II Germany.” In Eckart, Wolfgang U. 100 Years of Organized Cancer Research
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- 100 Jahre organisierte Krebsforschung. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart and New
York 2000: 43-46. 77 Prüll 2000: 19 quotes Hamperl, H. Werdegang und Lebensweg eines
Pathologe., Schattauer, Stuttgart and New York 1972: 163. 78 The Netherlands Cancer Institute:
www.nki.nl/Research/About+the+Netherlands+Cancer+Institute/About+the+Netherl
ands+Cancer+Institute.htm 79 Bjarnason, Olafur and Hrafn Tulinius. Cancer Registration in Iceland 1955-1974.
Acta Pathologica, Microbiologica et Immunologica Scandinavia Supplement No.
281/Icelandic Cancer Society Research Publication No. 1. 1983. 80Maisin, J. H. L'Union Internationale Contre le Cancer. De sa fondation à nos
jours. UICC, Genève 1977. 81 Jacyna 1988. 82 Sturdy and Cooter 1998; Crenner 2006.