A Belated Thank You to Dr. M. Lois Murphy

Perhaps sometimes I dwell too much on what I have lost because of cancer, more specifically because of the chemotherapy and radiation given to me to treat it. The reality is, I owe an awful lot to the chemo and radiation I often curse.

And I owe an awful lot to Dr. M. Lois Murphy,

a pediatric oncologist whose leadership advanced early work on chemotherapy, especially for childhood cancer, and led to markedly higher survival rates.

She died in New York earlier this month. Her obituary appeared in the New York Times today.

Drugs and drug combinations she tested and refined are still in use today. The outpatient-based treatments (as opposed to overnight and extended stays) she championed are still the preferred methods of care. But she knew that the cure could sometimes be worse than the disease; She was a pioneer in the field of teratology, and sought to determine how

promising drugs that were intended to attack cancers could breach the placenta and potentially damage a fetus.

With this awareness of the lasting effects of life-saving drugs, could we call her the grandmother of Oncofertility?

Thank you, Dr. Murphy, for your dedication, your life’s work and for raising awareness for those of us who have benefited from the survival rates you helped to increase.