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Jane Wright Dies

Jane Wright, an oncologist who was among the founders of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, has died, reports the New York Times. She was 93. After attending New York Medical College, Wright joined her father Louis Wright, who was one of the first black graduates of Harvard Medical School, at Harlem Hospital, working at a cancer research center there. They studied the effects of new chemotherapeutic agents on mice with leukemia and, later, in patients.

In 1964, Wright joined with six other physicians to found ASCO. She also served on Lyndon Johnson's President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke.

"Not only was her work scientific, but it was visionary for the whole science of oncology," Sandra Swain, the current ASCO president, tells the Times. "She was part of the group that first realized we needed a separate organization to deal with the providers who care for cancer patients. But beyond that, it's amazing to me that a black woman, in her day and age, was able to do what she did."

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