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Misleading title because Dr. Stewart built on a significant body of research. Payton Rous conducted the studies that led to the discover of the Rous Sarcoma Vir

Misleading title because Dr. Stewart built on a significant body of research. Payton Rous conducted the studies that led to the discover of the Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV) in 1909. Shope described the papilloma viruses. Admittedly, there was also some embarrassment around the 1926 Nobel prize for a researcher who made a similar claim that was later discredited. All that said, Stewart did demonstrate the cancer-causing effects of HPV, which is important and remains a significant problem even in the developed world. Suggestion for better title: append "Sarah Stewart revealed missing link between viruses and cancer in humans".

adrianN 7y ago
Every scientist ever built on a significant body of research.
travmatt 7y ago
“”” Stewart’s search for a viral basis for cancer wasn’t unprecedented. In 1911, virologist Peyton Rous discovered the Rous sarcoma virus, which he concluded could transmit cancer in chickens. In 1933, Richard Shope, a physician and virologist, discovered the Shope papilloma virus, which caused keratinous carcinomas in rabbits, and three years later, biologist John Bittner demonstrated that the mouse mammary tumor virus could be transmitted from a mother mouse to her young through her milk. But it was Ludwig Gross’s work on leukemia in mice in the 1950s that would lead to the first major breakthrough in the virus-cancer link—and it was that work that Stewart took up when she moved to the NCI in 1951. “””