Search Results for Medical Obituaries - Narrowed by: Surgical oncologist

First Title value, for Searching Westbury, Gerald (1927 - 2014)

2024-05-08T14:49:04Z

by Harold Ellis
Publication Date 2014-07-18 2014-09-24
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E005000-E005999/E005600-E005699
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/377856377856
Occupation Cancer surgeon Surgical oncologist
Details Gerald ('Charlie') Westbury was professor of surgery and director of the Institute of Cancer Research at the Royal Marsden Hospital. He was born in London on 29 July 1927, the elder son of Lew and Celia Westbury. His parents were of Eastern European Jewish origin and his father was a tailor. After attending St Marylebone Grammar School, Westbury entered Westminster Medical School, University of London, in 1944 and graduated MB BS with honours in 1949. He did his surgical house appointments at Westminster and the Royal Northern Hospital, followed by National Service in the medical branch of the Royal Air Force from 1950 to 1952. During his service he obtained both his MRCP and FRCS. On demobilisation, he became a resident surgical officer at the Brompton Hospital, then returned to the Westminster as surgical registrar and then senior registrar to Sir Stanford Cade from 1953 to 1960, interrupted only by a year as fellow in surgery at Harvard Medical School in 1957. In 1960, he succeeded his old chief and mentor, Sir Stanford Cade, as consultant surgeon at Westminster and remained on its surgical staff until 1982. Here he continued the Cade tradition of a multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of malignant disease with his radiotherapist and pathology colleagues. He collaborated with the plastic surgeons in radical ablation followed by reconstruction of the head and neck, and pioneered isolated limb cytotoxic perfusion for advanced melanomas. In 1982, Westbury was appointed foundation professor of surgery at the Royal Marsden Hospital, and served there until his retirement in 1989. Here he established a sarcoma multidisciplinary unit, which soon achieved worldwide recognition, as well as continuing his interest in malignant melanoma. He was respected not only as a brilliant technical surgeon but also as a shrewd clinician and diagnostician. He served as dean of the Institute of Cancer Research at the Marsden from 1986 until 1992. Westbury held important appointments outside his duties at the Marsden. He was a consultant surgeon to the Army from 1980 to 1989, president of the British Association of Surgical Oncology from 1989 to 1992, and was appointed fellow of the Institute of Cancer Research in 2000. He examined widely in surgery, including London, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Hong Kong. He was appointed OBE in 1990. After retirement in 1989, Westbury served as trustee of a number of charities and enjoyed his hobbies of music, bird-watching and walking. In 1965 he married Hazel Frame, who died shortly before her husband. They had three daughters, one of whom, Charlotte, is a clinical oncologist. Westbury died on 12 June 2014, aged 86.
Resource Identifier RCS: E005673
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Fearon, Kenneth Christopher Howard (1960 - 2016)

2024-05-08T14:49:04Z

by Olle Ljungqvist
Publication Date 2016-10-27 2017-06-20
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009200-E009299
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/381443381443
Occupation Colorectal surgeon General surgeon Surgical oncologist
Details Kenneth Christopher Howard (Ken) Fearon was professor of surgical oncology at the University of Edinburgh. He was born in Glasgow on 3 August 1960. He attended St Aloysius' College in Glasgow and studied medicine at the University of Glasgow. He was an exceptional student and graduated with honours in 1982. He was awarded the prestigious Brunton Memorial prize during the MB ChB course. He then trained in Glasgow and Edinburgh under the tutelage of luminaries like Sir Kenneth Calman and Sir David Carter. He developed an interest in surgical oncology early in his career and was awarded an MD by the University of Glasgow in 1986 for his thesis 'Mechanisms and treatment of weight loss in cancer'. He obtained a fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 1988 and was awarded *ad eundem* fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and England in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Ken was appointed as a lecturer in surgery at Edinburgh University in 1988, promoted to senior lecturer in 1993 and to professor in 1999. He was an honorary consultant colorectal surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh. Ken was a busy clinician who loved treating his patients. He was a consummate colorectal surgeon with a longstanding interest and expertise in surgical nutrition. He kept pace with technical advances in surgery throughout his career, and remained a key member of the colorectal surgical team who continued to fulfill his on-call commitments. Ken had an insatiable desire for depth of general knowledge and this mirrored in his approach to surgical research. His clinical research focused on cancer cachexia, nutritional pharmacology, enhanced recovery after surgery and improving surgical outcomes. He was a true translational scientist and clinical researcher, and a great driver of ideas from bench to bedside and patient benefit. He supervised numerous MD and PhD theses, and had over 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including *The New England Journal of Medicine*, *Nature* and *Lancet Oncology*. He had an extraordinary talent for surgical research, with a brilliant mind that remained concentrated on recognising clinical problems, formulating hypotheses and seeking solutions. He had the capacity to ask the right questions and also the stamina and stubbornness to answer them, often through large, complicated clinical trials. Starting with his MD thesis, Ken worked on cancer cachexia research for over 30 years. He published extensively on muscle metabolism, muscle function and systemic inflammation in cancer, making him the most longstanding, most prolific and most cited researcher in clinical cachexia. Ken was a tireless advocate for progressing cancer cachexia therapies into the clinic and completed several early international randomised clinical trials, without the support of cooperative groups or pharmaceutical companies. When he saw a need to identify and treat patients early and before dramatic weight loss, Ken initiated exciting work to discover early cachexia biomarkers. He was lead author of 'Definition and classification of cancer cachexia: an international consensus' (*Lancet Oncol.* May;12[5]:489-95), a landmark paper providing a road map for clinical classification and management. With Olle Ljungqvist from Sweden, he formed the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) study group in 2001, a group that served as a forerunner of the worldwide ERAS Society in 2010. As the chairman of the board of the ERAS Society, Ken was instrumental in formulating highly cited guidelines for enhanced recovery after surgery, successfully encouraging great success in collaboration, and spreading key messages that have improved outcomes for patients, reduced complications and assisted faster recovery in several surgical disciplines. During his career, Ken was the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the Cuthbertson award of the Nutrition Society in 1991 and the James IV Association of Surgeons travellers' award in 1997. He was elected a member of the James IV Association of Surgeons (in 2000) and was president of the International Association for Surgical Nutrition and Metabolism (from 2005 to 2007). He had served as an examiner for the Intercollegiate Specialty Board in General Surgery and was a chair of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh's research board, its ophthalmology sub-committee and the Lorna Smith Charitable Trust committee. He was a member of the National Cancer Research Institute's palliative care cachexia sub-group and the Scottish Home Parenteral Nutrition Managed Clinical Network's executive committee. He was a board member of the Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Wasting Disorders and received its Hippocrates award in 2009. He was honoured by the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism with the Wretlind lecture in 2011, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Örebro University in Sweden in 2015. Ken was a brilliant speaker and a superb debater, didactic, but with a wry sense of humour, and in great demand nationally and internationally. His integrity and humanity shone through all of his activities and when speaking in public he held his audience with his engagement and directness. He was a much-loved teacher of undergraduates and postgraduates. Above all, Ken was a family man and his greatest treasures were his wife, Marie Fallon, and their two children, Christopher and Katie. Marie holds the St Columba's Hospice chair of palliative medicine at the University of Edinburgh and is an honorary consultant in palliative care at the Western General. They had a thriving personal and professional partnership, and friends, colleagues and collaborators were always made welcome in their home. Ken enjoyed gourmet cooking and fine wine, and was a keen golfer. He was an avid art collector and could enthral friends and acquaintances with animated discussions on art, music, cooking and wine. Despite his achievements, he remained down to earth and his humility was remarkable. Ken passed away suddenly on 3 September 2016 in Edinburgh aged only 56. It is with great sadness that we face the loss of a very close friend, a great mind and an outstanding clinical and academic leader. All those who knew him will miss his camaraderie, collaboration and friendship, as well as the joy of his lively and spiritual company. Ken was a giant in his field and a role model in medicine and biomedical science. His contributions will remain a lasting legacy for his colleagues and patients.
Resource Identifier RCS: E009260
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset

First Title value, for Searching Rowntree, Cecil William (1880 - 1943)

2024-05-08T14:49:04Z

by Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date 2013-10-23
Unknown
Asset Path Root/Lives of the Fellows/E004000-E004999/E004500-E004599
URL for Files https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/client/en_GB/search/asset/376722376722
Occupation Cancer surgeon Surgical oncologist
Details Born on 22 February 1880, second child and eldest son of the four sons and three daughters of William George Rowntree, MRCS 1874, of Islington, and his wife, *née* Kirkby. He was educated at Islington High School, University College, London, and the Middlesex Hospital, where he won the Murray scholarship in 1901 and the Freeman obstetrics and Hetley clinical medicine and surgery scholarships in 1902, the year in which he qualified. He subsequently served as registrar in the cancer wards, research scholar in the cancer research laboratory, and surgical registrar. In 1908-09 he was a Hunterian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons, lecturing on x-ray carcinoma (*Lancet*, 1909, 1, 821), and from 1909 to 1911 he edited the *Middlesex Hospital Surgical Reports* and contributed several articles himself. In 1912 he edited the second edition of *Cancer of the breast clinically considered* (1904) by Cecil Huntingdon Leaf, and contributed the chapter on Treatment of cancer to A Latham and T C English's *System of medicine*. He was appointed to the surgical staff of the Royal Cancer Hospital, served eventually as senior surgeon for many years, and was elected consulting surgeon when he retired in 1940. He was also senior, later emeritus, surgeon to the Woolwich and District War Memorial Hospital; consulting surgeon to the Caterham, Erith, and East Grinstead cottage hospitals, and for a time surgeon to the Dreadnought Hospital. He was commissioned as a captain in the RAMC Territorial force on 18 November 1911; served during the first world war as medical officer to the 16th Battalion the Queen's Westminster Rifles from 18 May 1915, and was promoted brevet major on 3 June 1917. He was also consulting surgeon to the American Red Cross. Rowntree was a pioneer who fought hard for reforms and innovations. He achieved an international reputation as a cancer surgeon, and his marked executive ability brought him to the fore also in professional organizations both at home and abroad. He was president of the subsection of proctology at the Royal Society of Medicine 1929-30; and in the British Empire Cancer Campaign he served as a member of the Grand Council and its clinical research committee, and a deputy chairman of the executive committee. He also organized the Campaign's informal biennial conferences of cancer workers, and was vice-president of the 1939 conference. In 1928-29 he was chairman of the Westminster division of the British Medical Association. He was honorary secretary of the surgical section and honorary chairman of the executive committee at the International Cancer Conference held in London in July 1928; and British representative in the Union international contre le Cancer, where he also served on the executive committee and was elected a vice-president. He was created a Chevalier of the French Légion d'Honneur and an Officier of the Belgian Ordre de Leopold for his international services to cancer research. Rowntree was a man of high principle, who early in life refused an attractive chance of rapid advancement rather than go against his conscience. He was deeply interested in his fellow-men, was absolutely loyal to his colleagues and pupils, and allowed no compromise in matters on which he had taken decision. Withal he was enthusiastic, friendly, and optimistic, and full of encouragement and inspiration both for his patients and for colleagues who sought his advice in surgical or ethical difficulties. He was a handsome and dignified man of fine build, with red hair; and an excellent and humorous after-dinner speaker. He practised at 9 Upper Brook Street and later at 17 Harley House, NW1. Rowntree married in 1908 Katharine Aylmer, daughter of H Whitworth Jones, who survived him with two sons and a daughter. The younger son, Thomas Whitworth Rowntree, was admitted an FRCS in 1942. Rowntree had been a fine athlete and golfer and an active member of the Ranelagh Club. He suffered from severe cardiac illness during the last four years of his life, and died at Little Warren, East Grinstead, Sussex, on 14 October 1943, aged 63. He was cremated at East Croydon and his ashes were scattered on the lawns of Woolwich memorial hospital, Shooter's Hill. In his memory a medical and surgical reference library was founded at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, Sussex (*Brit med J* 1944, 1, 642). Publications: Leaf's *Cancer of the breast clinically considered*, 2nd edition, London, 1912. Treatment of cancer, in Latham and English *System of medicine*, 1912. Operative surgery of the aged. *Clin J* 1931, 60, 257. Cancer of the breast. *Brit med J* 1937, 1, 153. On x-ray carcinoma and an experimental inquiry into the conditions which precede its onset, Hunterian lecture, RCS. *Lancet*, 1909, 1, 821.
Resource Identifier RCS: E004539
Collection Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format Obituary
Format Asset