Cornelius P. Rhoads

Who is Cornelius P. Rhoads?

Cornelius Packard "Dusty" Rhoads was an American pathologist and oncologist, who was an administrator: he was director of Memorial Hospital for Cancer Research in New York beginning in 1940, the first director of Sloan-Kettering Institute beginning in 1945, and the first director of the combined Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center. For his contributions to cancer research, he appeared on the cover of the June 27, 1949 issue of Time magazine under the title "Cancer Fighter."

During his early years with the Rockefeller Institute in the 1930s, Rhoads specialized in anemia and leukemia, working for six months in Puerto Rico 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.

In 1932, a letter Rhoads had written that disparaged Puerto Ricans and claimed he had killed and intentionally injected cancer cells into his patients was given by a lab assistant to Puerto Rican nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos.