Abstract

During his internship in 1961, the author sent letters of inquiry asking which centers in the United States provided a residency program in cancer medicine and what kind of training was offered. The answers were unexpected. Not only did these simple questions appear to be difficult to answer, but one reply indicated that a cancer specialist was a non-entity! The author briefly describes the training he received from two of his mentors, Dr. Georges Mathé in France, and Dr. James F. Holland in the United States, exemplifying what existed at the time when the methodology of clinical trials was being developed and the experimental bases of chemotherapy were being conceived and tested within the setting of cooperative oncology groups.