Cancer Institute– A national cancer institute
designated cancer center

Milestones in Cancer Research at Stanford

Stanford's physicians work at the juncture of basic research and clinical medicine, translating the insights of scientists into lifesaving treatments for cancer patients. Throughout their efforts, they draw upon a wide range of laboratory and clinical facilities home to the Stanford University Medical Center, including the Stanford Cancer Institute, the Beckman Center, the Lucas Center, Stanford Hospital & Clinicsl, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and the Center for Clinical Sciences Research.


1945 Felix Bloch (pictured) and Edward Purcell (Harvard) discover nuclear magnetic resonance - used today to detect brain tumors and other cancers.

	1956 Henry Kaplan is the first physician in the Western hemisphere to use the linear accelerator to treat retinoblastoma, an incurable eye cancer. This technology is now used worldwide to treat Hodgkin's disease and other forms of cancer.

1960 Saul Rosenberg (pictured), Henry Kaplan, and their colleagues begin to develop combined modality therapy - combining drugs, radiation, and surgery - that has dramatically improved survival rates for patients with Hodgkin's disease.

	1962 Malcolm Bagshaw develops a type of radiation therapy called high-dose, small-field radiation to treat prostate cancer without the need for surgery.

1967 Arthur Kornberg synthesizes biologically active DNA in a test tube, spurring development of engineering techniques in medicine and biotechnology.

	1970 Leonard Herzenberg (pictured pointing) develops the flourescence-activated cell sorter, revolutionizing the study of cancer cells.

1973 Stanley Cohen (pictured) and Herb Boyer (USCF) develop gene cloning, igniting the biotechnology revolution.

	1974 William Robinson isolates the genome of the virus that causes hepatitis B and a common form of liver cancer.

1980 Paul Berg receives the Nobel Prize to recognize his work in the development of gene splicing technology.

	1981 Ronald Levy successfully uses monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer.

1984 Mark Davis and Tak Mak (Ontario Cancer Institute) isolate gene coding for part of the T cell receptor, a key to the immune system's functions. The discovery brings scientists closer to the goal of developing vaccines to fight cancer.
J. Martin Brown develops the drug tirapazamine to attack the hypoxic cells in solid tumors, offering hope for the treatment of cervical, breast, headn and neck and prostate cancers.
	Jeffery Sklar, Michael Cleary (pictured), and fellow Stanford scientists use purified genetic probes to diagnose cancer.

1988 Irving Weissman uses cell separation techniques to isolate pure blood-forming stem cells in mice. In 1991, he separates these stem cells from human bone marrow cells, offering promise for the treatment of leukemias and breast cancer.

	1989 Sarah Donaldson and Michael Link (pictured with child) achieve a 96 percent survival rate for children suffering from Hodgkin's disease.
Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine opens

1990 Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford opens

	1992 Susan Knox uses radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies to treat patients with lymphoma and solid tumors. Richard Lucas Center for Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Imaging (below, right) opens.
Ronald Levy develops customized cancer vaccine to trigger anti-tumor activity by the immune systems of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients.

	1993 Peterson Center for Cancer Treatment opens in the Stanford University Medical Center.
Branimir Sikic develops new approaches to overcome multi-drug resistance in cancer cells, enhancing the ability of chemotherapeutic drugs to treat leukemia, lymphoma, and solid tumors. Robert Negrin, Samuel Strober, and Edgar Engleman (pictured) develop and initiate stem-cell transplants, which are less invasive, less costly, and more effective than transplantation of bone marrow.

1994 Gil Chu discovers that the Ku gene is required for DNA end joining after ionizing radiation and during V(D)J recombinaation.

1996 Mark Davis defines tetramer technology, permitting physicians to monitor patients' immune responses to cancer vaccines as well as study endogenous T cell responses to cancer. Matthew Scott discovers a gene responsible for basal cell carcinoma, the most common human cancer.

2000 Center for Clinical Sciences Research opens

2003 Branimir Sikic, George Fisher, and Cheryl Cho develop a new treatment for metastatic colorectal cancers using an inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor in combination with chemotherapy, the IFOX regimen.

2004 The Center for Cancer Treatment and Prevention/Ambulatory Care Pavillion opens to provide ambulatory surgery and outpatient services.

2006 The Stanford CyberKnife team celebrated the opening of a second active CyberKnife unit. The second CyberKnife, housed in the Stanford Cancer Center, represents the latest version of robotic radiosurgery technology.