Sidney Farber

Sidney Farber
Dr Sidney Farber, after whom the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute is named.
Born	(1903-09-30)September 30, 1903 Buffalo, New York
Died	March 30, 1973(1973-03-30) (aged 69) Boston, Massachusetts
Residence	United States
Fields	Oncology, Pathology
Institutions	Boston Children's Hospital Dana–Farber Cancer Institute
Alma mater	University at Buffalo Harvard Medical School
Known for	Chemotherapy, Fundraising and advocacy for cancer research
Notable awards	Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award
Spouse	Norma Farber

Sidney Farber (September 30, 1903 – March 30, 1973) was an Polish-American pediatric pathologist. He is regarded as the father of modern chemotherapy, after whom the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute is named.

Farber was born to Jewish parents in Buffalo, New York, the third oldest of 14 siblings. He was a graduate of SUNY Buffalo in 1923. In the mid-1920s, Jewish students were often refused admission to US medical schools, prompting him to go to Europe. As Farber was fluent in German, he undertook his first year of medical school at the Universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg in Germany. Having excelled in Germany, Farber entered Harvard Medical School as a second-year student and graduated in 1927. He was married to Norma C. Farber (formerly Holzman), an author of children's books. He was the brother of the noted philosopher and SUNY Buffalo professor Marvin Farber (1901–1980).

After graduate training in pathology at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (the predecessor of Brigham and Women's Hospital) in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was mentored by Kenneth Blackfan, Farber was appointed to a resident pathologist post at Children's Hospital. He became an assistant in pathology at Harvard Medical School in 1928. In 1929, he became the first full-time pathologist to be based at Children's Hospital.

While working at Harvard Medical School on a research project funded by a grant from the American Cancer Society, he carried out both the preclinical and clinical evaluation of aminopterin (synthesized by Yellapragada Subbarow), a folate antagonist in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He showed for the first time that induction of clinical and hematological remission in this disease was achievable. These findings promoted Farber as the "father" of the modern era of chemotherapy for neoplastic disease, having already been recognized for a decade as the "father" of modern pediatric pathology. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Farber continued to make advances in cancer research, notably the 1955 discovery that the antibiotic actinomycin D and radiation therapy could produce remission in Wilms' tumor, a pediatric cancer of the kidneys. And it was during this period that he took his persuasive powers to a national stage.