Clinical trials are so common nowadays! Imagine a time that they were not. Clinical trials just might be commonplace now because of Dr. Jane C. Wright. “She recognized the value of placing patients on clinical trials. It was not exactly accepted by the medical public…She looked at it as an opportunity to open the gates to new possibilities in treatment of cancer. In that way she was a trailblazer.” – Dr. Robert E. Madden, Professor Emeritus of Surgery at New York Medical College.
Becoming a medical doctor was literally in her DNA. Despite the racial inequalities and gender biases through many generations, Dr. Jane C. Wright (also known as “Jane Jones” or “Mrs. David Jones”) (November 30, 1919 – February 19, 2013) followed in her family’s footsteps. The doctors in her family were: Her father Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright, one of the first African American graduates of Harvard Medical School and the first African American doctor in a New York City public hospital, her grandfather born into slavery – Dr. Ceah Ketchem Wright, her step-grandfather Dr. William Fletcher Penn – first African American graduate of Yale Medical College, and even her sister Dr. Barbara Wright Pierce.
While in college, she received her medical degree in 1945 with honors while attending New York Medical College. Dr. Jane C. Wright was fortunate to work closely with her father Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright early in her career in 1949. While researching, they focused on anti-cancer chemicals, now called chemotherapy. These drugs were originally discovered in 1940. Though discovered, these drugs were hardly used to treat cancer. Doses were not defined nor were drugs readily available. She and her father agreed that they wanted to see chemotherapy become more accessible to those who needed it. Dr. Jane C. Wright was the first to show that Methotrexate as a foundational chemo drug. This drug is still the main drug used to treat many cancers. They saved millions of lives by making it more accessible.
Dr. Wright did quite a bit a research on different drugs and tumor growths. She compared human tissue cultures vs. mice to determine treatment of cancers. She tenacially tested a variety of chemical compounds, experimented with different dosages and tried different order of treatment of multiple drugs to increase effectiveness as well as reduce side effects. She built guidelines for cancer treatment – changing the way cancer was treated forever and today. With some cancers untreatable and others requiring surgery to treat, Dr. Jane C. Wright also tested new non-surgical methods of decreasing or eliminating tumors. She experimented and determined that certain drugs could be used to treat certain cancers. She administered the drugs via a catheter system to hard to reach tumors like the liver or spleen. She was also successful in determining treatment of breast and skin cancer that increased life span up to 10 years.
Dr. Wright referred to chemotherapy as the ‘Cinderella of cancer research’ for it’s incredible potential in treating multiple types of lethal cancers. – Dr. Jane C. Wright
