Beatrice Mintz, a pioneering cancer researcher and developmental biologist whose findings helped pave the way for less harmful chemotherapy and radiation treatments, died on January 3 in her home in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. She was 100 years old.
The cause of her death was heart failure; Mintz also had dementia, Bob Spallone, her executor and former colleague at Fox Chase Cancer Center, tells The New York Times.
Mintz worked at Fox Chase for more than 60 years, making numerous contributions to cancer research. Perhaps the most notable was her demonstration that deadly cancer cells could be introduced into mouse embryos that would go on to develop into normal mice, which showed that cancer cells could be reined in by signals from surrounding tissue. Researchers have since built on this finding to develop cancer therapies that are less damaging to healthy tissue than chemotherapy and radiation.
Mintz was also an early ...
