David A. Karnofsky

David A. Karnofsky (March 28, 1914 - August 31, 1969 ) was an American oncologist at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center , who was considered a pioneer in medical oncology.

Karnofsky graduated from Stanford University with an MD in 1940 and then was at the Collis P. Huntington Memorial Laboratory at Harvard University . It was there that his interest in clinical oncology began, which was intensified during his time in the military during World War II, where he studied the effects of mustard gas on goats. This gave him the idea to test nitrogen mustards such as mechlorethamine (similar to mustard gas, only with nitrogen instead of sulfur) as chemotherapeutic agents against cancer. His superior in the Army, Cornelius Packard Rhoad , brought him to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (then Sloan Kettering Institute) in New York after the war, where he stayed for the rest of his career and was head of chemotherapy research. Karnofsky was also Professor and Head of Oncology Medical Service at Cornell University Medical Center. He died of lung cancer in 1969.

In 1948, together with Joseph H. Burchenal, he introduced the Karnofsky Index to evaluate the effects of chemotherapeutic agents against cancer.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology has been honoring him with the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award and Lecture for Oncology since 1970.

literature

J. H: Burchenal: Obituary: David A. Karnofsky . In: Cancer Res. , Vol. 30, 1970, pp. 549-550.
DA Karnofsky, JH Burchenal: The clinical evaluation of chemotherapeutic agents in cancer . In: CM MacLeod (Ed.), Evaluation of chemotherapeutic agents . New York: Columbia University Press, 1949, pp. 191-205.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Karnofsky, David A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American oncologist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 28, 1914
DATE OF DEATH	August 31, 1969