Philip Strax
Philip Strax was a radiologist who pioneered the use of mammography to screen for early breast cancer. With co-investigators statistician Sam Shapiro and surgeon Louis Venet he conducted a randomized controlled trial comparing outcomes of 60,000 women who received either mammogram and clinical breast exam or "usual practices in receiving medical care". The first results of this study were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1966. This large and carefully constructed study is the basis for screening mammography performed throughout the world today. It demonstrated conclusively and for the first time that screening mammograms, which are routine periodic mammograms of asymptomatic women, could find breast cancer at an early enough stage to save lives. For this research Dr. Strax and Mr. Shapiro shared the prestigious Kettering Prize for outstanding contributions to cancer diagnosis or treatment in 1988.
