The past century has seen many remarkable advances against cancer, a disease known to mankind for thousands of years. The accomplishments of the last 10 years, such as human gene therapy, biotechnology products like monoclonal antibodies, the identification of disease genes, computer-assisted imaging, and the decline in the cancer death rate, all build upon knowledge gained earlier in the century. Throughout the 1900s, medicine and research saw great advances, and cancer research and cancer researchers were full partners in that growth. 1907 American Association for Cancer Research founded. Peyton Rous discovers a virus that causes cancer in chickens.
Coal tar gives rabbits cancer in experimental proof of carcinogenesis.
The theory that chemicals had cancer-causing potential began with observations more than a century earlier of the high rate of cancer among chimney sweeps. 1922 Public Health Service opens a Special Cancer Investigations Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. The National Institute of Health is established by the Ransdell Act. 1937 Legislation signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the National Cancer Institute to support research relating to the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. The first issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is published.