Philip Strax

Philip Strax (January 1, 1909 – March 9, 1999) was a radiologist who pioneered the use of mammography to screen for early breast cancer. With co-investigators statistician Sam Shapiro and surgeon Louis Venet he conducted a randomized controlled trial comparing outcomes of 60,000 women who received either mammogram and clinical breast exam (study group) or "usual practices in receiving medical care" (control group). The first results of this study were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 1966. This large and carefully constructed study is the basis for screening mammography performed throughout the world today. It demonstrated conclusively and for the first time that screening mammograms, which are routine periodic mammograms of asymptomtic women, could find breast cancer at an early enough stage to save lives. For this research Dr. Strax and Mr. Shapiro shared the prestigious Kettering Prize for outstanding contributions to cancer diagnosis or treatment in 1988.