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'{{short description|American pathologist and oncologist (1898 – 1959)}} {{good article}} {{Infobox scientist | image = Cornelius P. Rhoads Army portrait.jpg | image_size = | caption = Rhoads in 1943 | birth_name = Cornelius Packard Rhoads | birth_date = {{birth date|1898|06|20}} | birth_place = [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1959|08|13|1898|06|20}} | death_place = [[Stonington, Connecticut]], U.S. | field = [[Oncology]], [[pathology]], [[hematology]] | work_institution = [[Rockefeller University]] <br /> [[Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology]] | alma_mater = [[Bowdoin College]] <br /> [[Harvard University]] | doctoral_advisor = | known_for = | prizes = [[Legion of Merit]] <br /> Walker Prize <br /> Clement Cleveland Medal Katherine Berkin Judd Award }} '''Cornelius Packard "Dusty" Rhoads''' (June 9, 1898 – August 13, 1959) was an American [[pathologist]], [[oncologist]], hospital administrator and a notorius racist against the people of Puerto Rico. He was involved in a racist scandal and subsequent whitewashing in the 1930s. Beginning in 1940, he served as director of Memorial Hospital for Cancer Research in New York, from 1945 was the first director of Sloan-Kettering Institute, and the first director of the combined [[Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center]]. For his contributions to cancer research, Rhoads was featured on the cover of the June 27, 1949 issue of [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] under the title "Cancer Fighter".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070712031551/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,800477,00.html "Medicine: Frontal Attack"], ''Time.'' 27 June 1949, accessed 21 October 2013</ref> During his early years with the [[Rockefeller University|Rockefeller Institute]] in the 1930s, Rhoads specialized in [[anemia]] and [[leukemia]], working for six months in [[Puerto Rico]] in 1932 as part of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] [[International Health Board]] contingent. During World War II, he worked for the United States Army helping to develop [[chemical weapons]] and set up research centers. Research on [[mustard gas]] led to developments for its use in [[chemotherapy]] at Sloan Kettering. This man does not deserve the title of "Dr" his acts on the people of Puerto Rico was straight bioterrorism. In early 1932, a letter Rhoads had written in November 1931, which disparaged Puerto Ricans and makes claims (which he referred to later as jokes but we all know it was not) he had intentionally injected cancer cells into his patients (what kind of a sick man does this), was given by a lab assistant to [[Puerto Rican nationalist]] leader [[Pedro Albizu Campos]]. He publicized the letter in the Puerto Rican and American media, which led to a scandal, an official investigation,<ref name="Starr, Douglas 2003. p. 574-5"/> and a US [[whitewash (censorship)|whitewashing]] campaign to protect Rhoads and, by extension, Rockefeller interests.<ref name="journals.lww.com">[http://journals.lww.com/oncology-times/Fulltext/2003/09100/The_Rhoads_Not_Given__The_Tainting_of_the.7.aspx ''The Rhoads Not Given: The Tainting of the Cornelius P. Rhoads Memorial Award.''] Rosenthal, Eric T. ''Oncology Times''. 10 September 2003. Volume 25. Issue 17. pp. 19-20. Retrieved 8 January 2013.</ref> In the ensuing investigation, Rhoads defended himself, saying he had written his comments in anger and as a joke to a New York colleague.<ref name="scribd.com">{{cite journal | last1 = Lederer | first1 = Susan E. | year = 2002 | title = 'Porto Ricochet': Joking about Germs, Cancer, and Race Extermination in the 1930s | url = https://www.scribd.com/doc/53156735/%E2%80%9CPorto-Ricochet%E2%80%9D-Joking-about-Germs-Cancer-and-Race-Extermination-in-the-1930s | journal = American Literary History | volume = 14 | issue = 4| pages = 720–746 | doi = 10.1093/alh/14.4.720 | s2cid = 144821160 }}</ref> Neither Puerto Rico's Attorney General nor the medical community found evidence of his or the project's giving any inappropriate medical treatment, and the scandal was forgotten.<ref name="clear"/><ref name="Science"/> In 2002, the controversy was revived. Alerted to the incident, [[American Association for Cancer Research]] (AACR), which had established the Cornelius P. Rhoads Memorial Award in 1979 (A real shame people like him can have such an award name after him),<ref name="Packard"/> commissioned a new investigation.<ref name="LWW">[http://journals.lww.com/oncology-times/Fulltext/2003/09100/The_Rhoads_Not_Given__The_Tainting_of_the.7.aspx Rosenthal, Eric T. "The Rhoads Not Given: The Tainting of the Cornelius P. Rhoads Memorial Award"], ''Oncology Times,'' 10 September 2003. Volume 25. Issue 17. pp. 19-20. Retrieved 17 December 2012.</ref> It was led by [[Jay Katz]], emeritus professor at [[Yale Law School]] and a specialist in medical ethics. He concluded there was no evidence of [[Unethical human experimentation in the United States|unethical human experimentation]], but the letter was so offensive that the prize should be renamed. AACR concurred and stripped the honor from Rhoads because of his [[racism]].<ref name="Science">{{cite journal | last1 = Starr | first1 = Douglas | year = 2003 | title = Revisiting a 1930s Scandal: AACR to Rename a Prize. | doi = 10.1126/science.300.5619.573 | journal = Science | volume = 300 | issue = 5619| pages = 573–4 | pmid=12714721| s2cid = 5534392 }}</ref> ==Early life and education== Rhoads was sadly born June 20, 1898, in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], as the son of an [[ophthalmologist]], Dr. George H. Rhoads, and his wife.<ref name="Hunter">Stephen Hunter & John Bainbridge; ''American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman,'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=5b2dnzu54ZEC&pg=PA194&lpg=PA194&dq=%22cornelius+rhoads%22+1898&source=bl&ots=g3Y9rtYUvY&sig=xjUuqIKK75rmk7pplrJFboQkPh0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ANT4VOy7L4fEgwTSloSYBw&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=%22cornelius%20rhoads%22%201898&f=false pp. 194-195]; Simon & Schuster pub., 2005; {{ISBN|978-0-7432-6068-8}}</ref> He received his early education in Springfield, later attending [[Bowdoin College]] in [[Maine]], where he graduated in 1920. He entered [[Harvard Medical School]], where he became [[class president]], and in 1924, he received his [[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]], ''[[cum laude]]''.<ref name="Hunter" /> Rhoads became an intern at [[Peter Bent Brigham Hospital]], and contracted pulmonary [[tuberculosis]]. During his treatment and recovery, he developed a lifelong interest in disease research. ==Early career== After recovering from TB, Rhoads published a paper on the [[tuberculin]] reaction with [[Fred W. Stewart]], who became his longtime colleague. Rhoads taught as a [[pathologist]] at Harvard and conducted research on disease processes.<ref name="onlinelibrary.wiley.com">{{cite journal|title=Cornelius Packard Rhoads 1898–1959 |journal=CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians |date=2008-12-31 |doi=10.3322/canjclin.28.5.304 |pmid=100190 |volume=28 |issue = 5|pages=304–305|s2cid=26685816 |doi-access=free }}</ref> In 1929, Rhoads joined the staff of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, now [[Rockefeller University]], where he worked for [[Simon Flexner]]. He was also staff pathologist at Rockefeller Hospital.<ref name="Lederer"/> His early research interests included [[hematology]] and [[poliomyelitis]]. He worked at Rockefeller until 1939.<ref>[http://jem.rupress.org/content/50/3/273.abstract THE EFFECT OF CATAPHORESIS ON POLIOMYELITIS VIRUS, P. K. Olitsky, C. P. Rhoads, and P. H. Long, September 1, 1929 // ''JEM'' vol. 50 no. 3 273-277 The Rockefeller University Press]</ref><ref>{{cite journal | pmc = 2131593 | pmid=19869595 | volume=49 | issue=6 | journal=J Exp Med | pages=959–73 | last1 = Stewart | first1 = FW | title=Intradermal Versus Subcutaneous Immunization of Monkeys Against Poliomyelitis | last2 = Rhoads | first2 = CP | doi=10.1084/jem.49.6.959| year=1929 }}</ref> ==Puerto Rico== While working for the Rockefeller Institute, in 1931 Rhoads was invited by [[hematologist]] [[William Bosworth Castle|William B. Castle]] to join his Rockefeller [[Anemia]] Commission, to conduct clinical research at Presbyterian Hospital in [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]].<ref name="Lederer"/> This was part of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]]'s sanitary commission on the island through the [[International Health Division]].<ref name="Castle">[http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/castle-wb.pdf "William B. Castle"], National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs</ref> Castle's research interest was [[pernicious anemia|pernicious]] [[iron deficiency anemia]], specifically as caused by the parasitic [[hookworm]], which was [[endemic]] on the island at rates of 80%, and [[tropical sprue]].<ref name="journals.lww.com"/><ref name="Science" /><ref name="Lederer"/> An effective treatment for the latter had just been developed, although the disease's causes remained obscure.<ref name="Lederer"/> As recently as 2010, these conditions continued to cause high mortality in Puerto Ricans, as reported in the scientific journal ''Revista de Hematologia''.<ref>[https://www.imbiomed.com.mx/articulo.php?id=94896 Norman Maldonado. "The Changing Clinical Picture of Tropical Sprue" (''Revista de Hematologia'')] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722224203/http://www.nietoeditores.com.mx/download/hematologia/abril-junio2010/x/hematologia%203.7%20CHANGING.pdf |date=2011-07-22 }}, ''Hematología'' 2010;11(2): 95-98 April&nbsp;— June 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2012.</ref> The cause of tropical sprue has still not been identified, but since the 1940s, it can be treated with [[folic acid]] and a 3 to 6-month course of [[antibiotic]]s.<ref name="pmid9135537">{{cite journal |author=Cook GC |title= Tropical sprue: some early investigators favoured an infective cause, but was a coccidian protozoan involved? |journal=Gut |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=428–9 |date=March 1997 |pmid=9135537 |pmc=1027098 |doi= 10.1136/gut.40.3.428 }}</ref> Rhoads was to assist Castle, and they established a base in San Juan at the Presbyterian Hospital. Rhoads corresponded often with Simon Flexner at the Rockefeller Institute in New York regarding his research and career interests. In Puerto Rico, the Rockefeller group had more than 200 patients; historian and ethicist [[Susan E. Lederer]] notes that, while referred to as patients, they were primarily clinical subjects whose conditions were studied to advance medical research. Because of the effects of anemia and the suspicion that tropical sprue was related to diet, Rhoads [[experimentally controlled]] patients' diets.<ref name="Lederer" /> Lederer notes that in letters from this time, Rhoads referred to his patients as "experimental 'animals'."<ref name="Lederer" /> He wrote: "If they don’t develop something they certainly have the constitutions of [[ox]]en." Rhoads sought to experimentally induce the conditions he was studying in his patients rather than simply treat them. If they did develop tropical sprue, he could treat it with liver extract.<ref name="Lederer" /> Castle wanted to perform a similar study in [[Cidra, Puerto Rico|Cidra]], in conjunction with the [[School of Tropical Medicine (Puerto Rico)|School of Tropical Medicine]], which was doing related research, but this was not approved. Rhoads also collected [[polio]] serum samples for his boss Flexner at the Rockefeller Institute, for which he was assisted by contacts at the university. ===Scandal=== On 10 November, 1931, Rhoads was at a party at a Puerto Rican co-worker's house in [[Cidra, Puerto Rico|Cidra]]. After having some drinks, he left, and found that his car had been [[Vandalism|vandalized]] and several items stolen. He went to his office, where he wrote and signed a letter addressed to "Ferdie" (Fred W. Stewart, a colleague from Boston, by then working at the [[Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital|Memorial Hospital for Cancer Research]] in New York).<ref name="Lederer">[http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/american_literary_history/v014/14.4lederer.html Susan E. Lederer, "Porto Ricochet": Joking about Germs, Cancer, and Race Extermination in the 1930s"], ''American Literary History'', Volume 14, Number 4, Winter 2002, pp.&nbsp;720–746</ref> He wrote the following: {{blockquote|Dear Ferdie: The more I think about the Larry Smith appointment the more disgusted I get. Have you heard any reason advanced for it? It certainly is odd that a man out with the entire Boston group, fired by Wallach, and as far as I know, absolutely devoid of any scientific reputation should be given the place. There is something wrong somewhere with our point of view. The situation is settled in Boston. Parker and Nye are to run the laboratory together and either Kenneth or MacMahon to be assistant; the chief to stay on. As far as I can see, the chances of my getting a job in the next ten years are absolutely nil. One is certainly not encouraged to make scientific advances, when it is a handicap rather than an aid to advancement. I can get a damn fine job here and am tempted to take it. It would be ideal except for the Porto Ricans. They are beyond doubt the dirtiest, laziest, most degenerate and thievish race of men ever inhabiting this sphere. It makes you sick to inhabit the same island with them. They are even lower than Italians. What the island needs is not public health work but a tidal wave or something to totally exterminate the population. It might then be livable. I have done my best to further the process of extermination by killing off 8 and transplanting cancer into several more. The latter has not resulted in any fatalities so far... The matter of consideration for the patients' welfare plays no role here&nbsp;— in fact all physicians take delight in the abuse and torture of the unfortunate subjects. Do let me know if you hear any more news. Sincerely, "Dusty"<ref name="clark"/><ref name="NPR.org 2020">{{cite web | title=Borinquén : Throughline | website=NPR.org | date=2020-07-16 | url=https://www.npr.org/2020/07/15/891442022/borinqu-n | access-date=2020-07-16}}</ref> }} His unmailed letter was found by one of his staff and circulated among workers at the Anemia Commission. When Rhoads learned of this, he quickly made a public apology at a meeting of all staff and doctors.<ref name="Lederer"/> A while later, he was dismayed to hear that the letter was going to be discussed at a meeting of the Puerto Rico Medical Association. With relations having deteriorated locally, he returned to New York in December 1931.<ref name="Lederer"/> ===Publicity and investigations=== [[File:Pedro Albizu Campos raising his hat to a crowd, 1936.jpg|thumb|right|190px|[[Pedro Albizu Campos]], Puerto Rican nationalist]] At the end of December, Rhoads' former lab technician Luis Baldoni resigned; he later testified that he feared for his safety. In January 1932 he gave the Rhoads letter to [[Pedro Albizu Campos]], president of the [[Puerto Rican Nationalist Party]].<ref name="Lederer"/> Albizu Campos sought publicity about the incident, sending copies of the letter to the [[League of Nations]], the [[Pan American Union]], the [[American Civil Liberties Union]], newspapers, embassies, and [[Holy See|the Vatican]].<ref name="Starr, Douglas 2003. p. 574-5">{{cite journal | last1 = Starr | first1 = Douglas | year = 2003 | title = Revisiting a 1930s Scandal: AACR to Rename a Prize. | doi = 10.1126/science.300.5619.573 | journal = Science | volume = 300 | issue = 5619| pages = 574–5 | pmid=12714721| s2cid = 5534392 }}</ref> In addition to distributing the letter to the media, Albizu wrote his own, charging that Rhoads was part of a US plot to exterminate Puerto Ricans. He linked the letter to other complaints about American imperialism, saying that the US governors in Puerto Rico encouraged labor [[emigration]] rather than improving employment, and promoted [[birth control]], which was offensive to the [[Catholic Church in Puerto Rico|majority Catholic residents]].<ref name="clark"/> Later that year [[James R. Beverley|Governor Beverley]] struggled with a greater political crisis than the Rhoads letter over his own remarks encouraging birth control use on the island. Residents were outraged and he was removed from office.<ref name="clark"/> A photograph of the Rhoads' letter was published on January 27, 1932 in ''La Democracia,'' the Unionist newspaper of [[Antonio Rafael Barceló]], with a translation in Spanish of the entire letter. It did not support Albizu Campos' theory of a US conspiracy against Puerto Rico. On February 13, ''[[El Mundo (Puerto Rico)|El Mundo]]'' published the entire letter, in both Spanish and English.<ref name="clark">[https://books.google.com/books?id=tDZtGZoFSGYC&pg=PA141 Truman R. Clark. 1975. ''Puerto Rico and the United States, 1917-1933''], University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 151-154</ref> The Rhoads' letter created one of the first crises for [[James R. Beverley]], newly appointed as the acting [[Governor of Puerto Rico]]. He said the letter was a "confession of murder" and "a libel against the people of Puerto Rico", and ordered an investigation, one of his first acts.<ref name="clark"/> Beverley said of Rhoads that "he was just a damned fool, ... a good doctor, but not very strong mentally on anything else."<ref name="clark"/> Rhoads, already back in New York, released an official response to the media and the governor. He insisted that he was joking in his letter, which was intended to be confidential, calling it a "fantastic and playful composition written entirely for my own diversion and intended as a parody on supposed attitudes of some American minds in Porto Rico," explaining that nothing "was ever intended to mean other than the opposite of what was stated."<ref name="Starr, Douglas 2003. p. 574-5"/> Rhoads offered to return to clear things up, but never did. The governor's inquiry concluded that Rhoads did not commit the acts included in his letter, nor any other crimes.<ref name="Starr, Douglas 2003. p. 574-5"/> Rhoads and his work were investigated by the Puerto Rican Attorney General [[Ramon Quinones]], with review of medical aspects by Dr. P. Morales Otero, representative of the Puerto Rico Medical Association, and Dr. E. Garrido Morales, representing the Commissioner of Health. Sworn testimony was taken from several of Rhoads' patients as well as his colleagues, including Castle, [[William Galbreath]], and George C. Payne. They reviewed the case files for the 257 patients treated by Rhoads and the Rockefeller Commission, including the 13 patients who died during this period. They found no evidence of the crimes described in Rhoads' unmailed letter. The Attorney General and medical community joined in absolving Rhoads of the Nationalist charges that he was part of a U.S. plot to exterminate Puerto Ricans.<ref name="clear"/> Rhoads was subject to separate investigations ordered by the acting American governor of Puerto Rico, Beverley, and the Rockefeller Institute, and "neither...was able to uncover any evidence that Dr. Rhoads had exterminated any Puerto Ricans."<ref name="LWW"/> Confirmed in Lederer's 21st century account, "records at Presbyterian Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Rhoads had performed his research, revealed no patients in the young [[pathologist]]'s care had died under suspicious circumstances."<ref name="scribd.com"/><ref name="Lederer"/> Additionally, the investigators were "unable to confirm Rhoads's other claim (omitted in ''Time''{{'}}s account) that he had 'transplanted cancer into several patients.'"<ref name="scribd.com"/><ref>Susan E. Lederer. " 'Porto Ricochet': Joking about Germs, Cancer, and Race Extermination in the 1930s," ''American Literary History.'' Volume 14. Number 4. Winter 2002. p. 720.</ref> During the investigations, [[Ivy Lee]], who handled public relations for the Rockefeller family, and a team at the Institute began a campaign to defend Rhoads' reputation. He was seen as a promising researcher. The [[Rockefeller Foundation]] also wanted to protect its working relationship with medical organizations in Puerto Rico<ref name="Lederer"/> and avoid problems with critics of [[human experimentation]] in the U.S. During the early 1930s, there was a revival of the anti-[[vivisection]]ist movement in the U.S., which also was concerned about the use of vulnerable populations as human subjects of experimentation: children (especially [[orphan]]s), [[Experimentation on prisoners|prisoners]], and soldiers. As Lederer observed, "some members of the medical community...monitored the [[Popular press|popular]] and [[Medical publishing|medical press]]."<ref name="subject">[https://books.google.com/books?id=6F2lmCfiy8gC&pg=PA101&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false Susan E. Lederer, ''Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America Before the Second World War''], Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997 paperback, pp. 103-104, 109</ref> [[Francis Peyton Rous]] of the Rockefeller Institute was editor of the ''[[Journal of Experimental Medicine]]'' through the 1930s and 1940s. Although it accepted few articles on clinical research, he was careful about their wording in an effort to avoid criticism by the anti-vivisectionists.<ref>Lederer (1997), ''Subjected to Science,'' p.109</ref> Lee was given access to pre-published versions of the articles on the controversy by both ''[[The New York Times]]'' and ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]].'' He persuaded ''Time'' to eliminate the words "and transplanting cancer into several more," from its published version of the letter.<ref name="journals.lww.com"/> Also, based on the positive testimony of some patients, ''The New York Times'' headlined its article as "Patients Say Rhoads Saved Their Lives" and reported on this aspect as well.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1932/02/02/archives/patients-say-rhoads-saved-their-lives-testify-in-porto-rican.html "Patients Say Rhoads Saved Their Lives." New York Times 2 Feb. 1932:19.]</ref> Rhoads had returned to New York before the scandal broke in Puerto Rico. After the Attorney General's report<ref name="clear">[https://www.nytimes.com/1932/02/15/archives/dr-rhoads-cleared-of-porto-rico-plot-letter-telling-of-giving.html "DR. RHOADS CLEARED OF PORTO RICO PLOT"], ''New York Times,'' 15 February 1932</ref> and that of the Rockefeller Institute in 1932, the controversy quickly faded in the United States.<ref name="Lederer" /><ref name="Starr, Douglas 2003. p. 574">{{cite journal | last1 = Starr | first1 = Douglas | year = 2003 | title = Revisiting a 1930s Scandal: AACR to Rename a Prize. | doi = 10.1126/science.300.5619.573 | journal = Science | volume = 300 | issue = 5619| page = 574 | pmid=12714721| s2cid = 5534392 }}</ref> Reaction to the Rhoads scandal and controversy was mixed in the United States, in part due to the Rockefeller campaign. Starr says (in his 2003 article on the scandal) that Rhoads' colleagues did not believe the researcher's attempt to cast his letter as a "fantastic and playful composition...intended as a parody."<ref name="Starr, Douglas 2003. p. 574-5"/> Some were worried about Rhoads' mental health at the time. A superior dismissed the incident as a case of local ingratitude. ''Time'' magazine headlined the incident as "Porto Ricochet"; Starr suggests they meant that Rhoads's humanitarian work in Puerto Rico had come back to bite him.<ref name="Starr, Douglas 2003. p. 574-5"/> In Puerto Rico, Albizu Campos used the Rhoads scandal as part of his [[anti-colonial]] campaign, attracting followers to the [[Puerto Rico Nationalist Party|Nationalist Party]]. In 1950, longtime Puerto Rican [[Independence movement in Puerto Rico|pro-independence]] activists [[Oscar Collazo]] and [[Griselio Torresola]] [[Truman assassination attempt|tried to assassinate President Truman]] to bring their cause to the world stage. When later interviewed, Collazo said that as a young man, in 1932 he heard Albizu Campos speak about the Rhoads letter and decided to devote his life to the [[Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico|Nationalist]] movement.<ref name="LWW"/><ref name="Lederer"/><ref name="Starr, Douglas 2003. p. 574"/> ==Hematology== Following his study in Puerto Rico, in 1933 Rhoads was chosen to lead a special service at the Rockefeller Institute in clinical hematology, to study diseases of the blood-forming organs. He built on his research on anemia and tropical sprue.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?ei=XmZtUvSkIaHhygGF6IHoCw&id=TjVrAAAAMAAJ&dq=Rockefeller+Institute&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Cornelius+Rhoads+ George Washington Corner, ''A History of the Rockefeller Institute, 1901-1953''], Rockefeller Institute Press, 1965, p. 271</ref> In 1934, Rhoads and another researcher published results of the success in using liver extract therapy to treat tropical sprue (and relieve anemia).<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Rhoads | first1 = C.P. | last2 = Miller | first2 = D.K. | year = 1934 | title = Intensive liver extract therapy of sprue | journal = Journal of the American Medical Association | volume = 103 | issue = 6| pages = 387–391 | doi=10.1001/jama.1934.02750320005003}}</ref> Their work was recognized as contributing benefit in treatment of the disease by others in the field.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Philip | first1 = CORR | year = 1936 | title = Intensive Liver Therapy in Sprue | url = http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=671006 | journal = Ann. Int. Med. | volume = 9 | issue = 9}}</ref> ==Memorial Hospital and World War II== In 1940, Rhoads was selected as director of [[Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center|Memorial Hospital]], which was devoted to cancer care and research, and had recently moved into a new building. Rhoads was selected for his interest in clinical investigation in addition to laboratory research, as the hospital did research as well as treatment.<ref name="cornell" /> He succeeded [[James Ewing (pathologist)|James Ewing]], a noted [[oncologist]]. Ewing had written about cancer transplantation in 1931, a subject which Rhoads had referred to in his scandalous letter written in November of that year.<ref name="Lederer" /> In 1941 Rhoads was studying the use of radiation to treat [[leukemia]].<ref>[http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/1/10/771.short "Postirradiation Changes in the Levels of Organic Phosphorus in the Blood of Patients with Leukemia"], ''Cancer Research''</ref> During World War II, Rhoads was commissioned as a colonel and assigned as chief of medicine in the Chemical Weapons Division of the [[U.S. Army]].<ref name="cornell" /> He established the U.S. Army [[chemical weapon]]s laboratories in [[Utah]], [[Maryland]], and [[Panama]]. With his enthusiastic participation, secret experiments including race-based tests involving [[African Americans]], [[Japanese Americans]], and [[Puerto Ricans]] were performed on more than 60,000 U.S. soldiers. Many were left suffering from debilitating, lifelong aftereffects.<ref name="Immerwahr">{{cite book |last=Immerwahr |first=Daniel |date=2019 |title=How to Hide an Empire |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |chapter=9: Doctors Without Borders |pages=150–151 |isbn=9780374172145 }}</ref> For this work, he won the [[Legion of Merit]] for "combating poison gas and other advances in chemical warfare" in 1945.<ref name="Packard">{{cite web |last1=Packard |first1=Gabriel |title=RIGHTS: Group Strips Racist Scientist's Name from Award |date=29 April 2003 |publisher=[[Inter Press Service]] |url=http://www.ipsnews.net/2003/04/rights-group-strips-racist-scientists-name-from-award/ |access-date=7 September 2013}}</ref><ref name="Immerwahr"/> In 2003, the chemical warfare experiments conducted at [[Isla San José (Panama)|San Jose Island]] were also reviewed as a part of the investigation into Rhoads' actions in Puerto Rico. Yale bioethicist [[Jay Katz]] described the chemical warfare tests as "unconscionable," saying that they were based on the "cheap availability of human beings" and the soldiers were "manipulated, exploited, and betrayed."<ref>Daniel Immerwahr, ''How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States'' (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2019), p. 151.</ref> Due to his casualty studies on [[mustard gas]] from an [[Air raid on Bari|accident during the war in Italy]], Rhoads became interested in its potential for cancer treatment. For the rest of his life, his research interest was in developing [[chemotherapy]] for cancer treatment,<ref name="cornell"/> but he served primarily as an administrator and scientific director at Memorial and Sloan-Kettering. From studies of [[Mustard Gas|mustard gas]], he developed a drug called [[mechlorethamine]] or Mustargen. Its success in clinical trials during the war years was the basis for the development of the field of anti-cancer [[chemotherapy]].<ref>{{cite journal | author = Gilman A. | title = The initial clinical trial of nitrogen mustard | journal = Am J Surg | year = 1963 | volume = 105 | pages = 574–578 | pmid = 13947966 | doi = 10.1016/0002-9610(63)90232-0 | issue = 5}}</ref> Rhoads also became interested in [[total body irradiation]], which led to early work on chemotherapy.<ref>Goozner, Merrill. 2004. ''The $800 Million Pill: The Truth Behind the Cost of New Drugs.'' p.172</ref> ==Post-war== In 1945, the [[Sloan-Kettering Institute]] was founded as a cancer research center, in the hopes that an industrial approach to research would yield a cure.<ref name="cornell"/> It opened in 1948. While still director of Memorial, from 1945 until 1953 Rhoads also served as the first director of the Sloan-Kettering Institute.<ref name="LWW"/><ref name="cornell">[http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/18863/2/Rhoads_Cornelius_Packard_1959.pdf "Cornelius P. Rhoads"], ECommons, Cornell University Library</ref> He was "praised by Memorial for his 'essential role in the evolution of the hospital into a modern medical center.'"<ref name="LWW"/><ref name="cornell"/> As director of Sloan-Kettering, he had oversight as well over research related to Department of Defense radiation experiments through 1954. For instance, that year, a Sloan-Kettering team began a multi-year study of "Post-Irradiation Syndrome in Humans."<ref>[http://www.defense.gov/pubs/dodhre/Append1.pdf Appendix 1: Contract DA-49-007, in "Report on Search for Records of Human Radiation Experiments"], US Department of Defense, p. 125</ref> In 1953, Rhoads stepped back slightly, becoming scientific director of the newly merged [[Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center]].<ref name="cornell"/> He also continued as the scientific director of Sloan-Kettering operations.<ref name="select.nytimes.com">[https://www.nytimes.com/1959/09/21/archives/service-for-dr-rhoads-memorial-for-sloankettering-director-here.html "SERVICE FOR DR. RHOADS; Memorial for Sloan-Kettering Director Here Tomorrow"], ''The New York Times''</ref> He also was an adviser to the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission]] regarding [[nuclear medicine]]. Some AEC funding supported Sloan-Kettering research into the use of iodine to transport radiation to cancer tumors.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uXYoAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KsgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6440,1335022 "New Hope is Held Out for Cancer Cure"], ''Daytona Beach Morning Journal,'' 16 June 1948, Retrieved 17 December 2012</ref> Rhoads continued to serve as scientific director of the [[Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center]] until his death.<ref name="select.nytimes.com"/> He died of a [[coronary occlusion]] on August 13, 1959, in [[Stonington, Connecticut]].<ref name="onlinelibrary.wiley.com"/> In 1979, on the 20th anniversary of his death, the [[American Association for Cancer Research]] established the Cornelius P. Rhoads Memorial Prize in his honor, as an annual award to a promising young researcher.<ref name="Packard"/> ==Honors== *[[Legion of Merit]] in 1945 for Rhoads' work for the US Army during WWII.<ref name="Packard"/> *Trustee of the [[Charles F. Kettering Foundation|Charles Kettering Foundation]].<ref name="cornell"/> *Awarded three [[Honorary Doctorates|honorary doctorates]], two for science and one for law.<ref name="cornell"/> *Posthumously awarded the Katherine Berkin Judd Award for outstanding contributions to [[oncology]] research.<ref name="onlinelibrary.wiley.com"/> *The [[American Association for Cancer Research]] (AACR) established the Cornelius P. Rhoads Memorial Award posthumously in his honor in 1979.<ref name="Packard"/>(In 2002, it renamed the award due to Rhoads' racism expressed in his 1932 letter.)<ref name="LWW"/> ==Revival of controversy== In 1982, Puerto Rican social scientist and writer Pedro Aponte-Vázquez discovered new information at various archives which raised questions about the investigations conducted on Rhoads and Rockefeller Project. Most prominent among his findings was a 1932 letter written by Governor Beverly to the associate director of the Rockefeller Foundation, stating that Rhoads had written a second letter "even worse than the first" and which, according to Beverley, the [Puerto Rican] government had suppressed and destroyed.<ref name="Starr, Douglas 2003. p. 574"/> In 1932 the Puerto Rican Attorney General, aided by top-ranking Puerto Rican doctors, had investigated all of the work of Rhoads and the Rockefeller Project, including 13 deaths that occurred among nearly 300 patients treated. They found no evidence of wrongdoing or crimes.<ref name="clear"/> In addition, Rhoads' superior at the Rockefeller Project had conducted a close investigation of the 13 patients who died under Rhoads' tenure, but found no evidence of wrongdoing. But in 1982 Aponte-Vázquez urged the [[Puerto Rico Department of Justice]] to reopen the case. It refused as Rhoads had been dead for so long.<ref name="Starr, Douglas 2003. p. 574"/> In 2002, Edwin Vazquez, a biology professor at the [[University of Puerto Rico]], came across Rhoads' 1932 letter and contacted the [[American Association for Cancer Research]] (AACR) about it. Given the letter's offensive nature, he demanded that Rhoads' name be removed from the AACR award. Others also contacted the AACR, including [[Secretary of State of Puerto Rico|Puerto Rico's Secretary of State]] [[Ferdinand Mercado]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Starr | first1 = Douglas | year = 2003 | title = Revisiting a 1930s Scandal: AACR to Rename a Prize. | doi = 10.1126/science.300.5619.573 | journal = Science | volume = 300 | issue = 5619| pages = 573–574 | pmid=12714721| s2cid = 5534392 }}</ref> Revival of the issue generated a fresh wave of publicity. The AACR, which said it had not known of the 1932 controversy,<ref name="LWW"/> commissioned an investigation led by [[Jay Katz]], a [[bioethicist]] from [[Yale University]]. Katz said although "there was no evidence of Dr. Rhoads' killing patients or transplanting cancer cells, the letter itself was reprehensible enough to remove his name from the award." The AACR agreed with his conclusion.<ref name="LWW"/> Eric Rosenthal of ''[[Oncology Times]]'' in 2003 characterized the case as the AACR having to "deal with the embarrassment of having history catch up to modern-day sensibilities."<ref name="LWW"/> He wrote, <blockquote>The complicated legacy of Cornelius "Dusty" Rhoads, who died in 1959, should not cause society to promote nor deny his existence but should provide a perspective that neither condones what he wrote or thought—or the whitewashing of the incident by institutions and media of the 1930s—but that does give him due appropriate credit for his accomplishments as well as acknowledgement of his faults and sins."<ref name="LWW"/></blockquote> In 2003 the AACR renamed the award, stripping the honor from Rhoads posthumously, to the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research.<ref>{{cite web | title=AACR Timeline 1964-1981 - AACR History | website=American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) | date=2021-04-05 | url=https://www.aacr.org/about-the-aacr/aacr-narrative-history/1964-1981/ | access-date=2022-03-31}}</ref> The AACR indicated that the new name would be retroactive and past awardees would receive updated plaques.<ref name="LWW"/><ref name="ips">[http://www.ipsnews.net/2002/12/health-cancer-body-to-probe-claims-that-scientist-killed-subjects/ "Cancer Body to Probe Claims that Scientist Killed Subjects"], IPS News</ref> ==Representation in other media== * During the 1980s, the [[Puerto Rico|Puerto Rican]] political satire comedy group, [[Los Rayos Gamma]], performed parodies of Rhoads with [[Jacobo Morales]] portraying a ''Cornelio Rodas'' as an insane, [[Victor Frankenstein|Frankenstein]]-like scientist bent on the elimination of Puerto Ricans.<ref>[http://www.vozdelcentro.org/?p=167 Collado-Schwartz, Ángel, editor; "El humor como expresión cultural"], ''La Voz del Centro II,'' Fundación La Voz del Centro, 2006</ref> * Roberto Busó-García wrote and directed the dramatic film, ''The Condemned'' (2013), which he said was loosely based on the Rhoads' controversy in Puerto Rico.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/movies/the-condemned-directed-by-roberto-buso-garcia.html?_r=0 Manohla Dargis, "Disgraced Life Conjures Mysterious Forces"], ''New York Times'', February 2013, accessed 21 October 2013</ref> ==References== {{reflist}} ==Further reading== *Susan E. Lederer. ''Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War'', Henry E. Sigerist Series in the History of Medicine. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, reprinted 1997 (paperback). ==External links== *[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2062772/ C.P. Rhoads, W.B. Castle, "The Pathology of the Bone Marrow in Sprue Anemia"], ''The American Journal of Pathology,'' 1933;9(Suppl):813-826.5 *[http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=252502 C.P. Rhoads, D.K. Miller, "Intensive liver extract therapy of sprue"], ''Journal of the American Medical Association,'' 1934, 103(6):387-391 *[http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=671006 Philip, CORR, "Intensive Liver Therapy in Sprue"], ''Ann. Int. Med.'', 1 March 1936, Volume 9, Number 9, American College of Physicians *[https://web.archive.org/web/20040212223949/http://tis.eh.doe.gov/ohre/ DOE Openness: Human Radiation Experiments], Department of Energy *[http://www.oncology-times.com/pt/re/oncotimes/fulltext.00130989-200307250-00016.htm;jsessionid=LGFRJsVJ01ycGJ6d6Df9ZWb5r2QKK0pnn1wmyNhm2JrRsv2v15Qz!1629792715!181195629!8091!-1#P26 "AACR Award name change"], ''Oncology Times'', 2 July 2003 {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Rhoads, Cornelius}} [[Category:1898 births]] [[Category:1959 deaths]] [[Category:American hospital administrators]] [[Category:Human subject research in the United States]] [[Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit]] [[Category:American medical researchers]] [[Category:American pathologists]] [[Category:Harvard Medical School alumni]] [[Category:Health in Puerto Rico]] [[Category:Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center]] [[Category:United States Army colonels]] [[Category:United States Army Medical Corps officers]]'