Jane Cooke Wright

In the early 1900s a cancer diagnosis was considered to be a death sentence. Doctors were working on finding a solution. A young woman named Jane Cooke Wright, after graduating from New York Medical College, started working at Harlem Hospital on cancer cells. Her dedication to finding effective treatment for cancer lead to the development of new, time-saving technologies to treat cancer. She proposed testing chemotherapy drugs on cancerous tissue from the patient rather than the patient directly, which allowed her to create the most effective treatment for the patient.

She also invented a way to treat hard-to-reach tumors in a less invasive manner than the contemporary treatment of surgical removal of the organs. At the time when there were few African American doctors and fewer women, Jane, at the age of 33, was a head of the cancer research center and leader in the field of oncology. She changed the way that cancer was treated forever and was co-founder of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She became the dean of the New York Medical College and was the first woman president of the New York Cancer Society. Like her grandfather and father, Jane was an excellent doctor. She added to this family legacy by also becoming a forerunner for women in medicine.