Robert Lowry Turner (1923–1990) was a British scientist known for his pioneering work in

cancer research Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials to evaluate and ...

and

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

. Turner came to

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

from

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

before being made Consultant Pathologist at Bradford Royal Infirmary in 1956. He led a team in Bradford developing key parts of

treatment, now a routine step for millions of people diagnosed with cancer. Chemotherapy was made known to the rest of the medical world in 1959 after Turner, along with surgeon

George Whyte-Watson George Whyte Watson, FRCS(Ed) (1908–1974) was a surgeon, and was born on the 9 August 1908 in Lisburn Co Antrim He graduated in medicine from Edinburgh in 1931. After an appointment as house surgeon at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, he went to ...

, brought it into

Bradford Royal Infirmary Bradford Royal Infirmary is a large teaching hospital in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, and is operated by the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The infirmary is affiliated with the Leeds School of Medicine The School ...

. Turner's work began on a project which looked at the effect

mustard gas Mustard gas or sulfur mustard is a chemical compound belonging to a family of cytotoxic and blister agents known as mustard agents. The name ''mustard gas'' is technically incorrect: the substance, when dispersed, is often not actually a gas, b ...

had on childhood Leukaemia, and developed with the help of other experts and through money raised in the city. At the time, the drugs were highly toxic, and he recognised the need for scientific input to optimise drug treatment and develop new strategies. To develop these ideas it was necessary to establish a local research base which was provided by the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a Public university, public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be creat ...

. This provided Turner with laboratory space, an office and two members of staff to help run it. Robert Lowry Turner died in 1990. He is commemorated along with surgeon George Whyte-Watson with a plaque which can be found in

Bradford Cathedral Bradford Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter, is an Anglican cathedral in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, one of three co-equal cathedrals in the Diocese of Leeds alongside Ripon and Wakefield. Its site has been used for Chri ...

References

External links

* The Institute of Cancer Therapeutics �

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Robert Lowry 1923 births 1990 deaths British pathologists 20th-century British medical doctors