Today is the 68th birthday of LaSalle Leffall Jr., an American oncologist who has brought attention to the problem of high cancer death rates among minorities, particularly African Americans. Leffall published research in 1973 showing increasing cancer mortality in the U.S. black population. When he became the first African-American president of the American Cancer Society in 1978, Leffall helped organize the first conference on cancer in the black community. In addition to clinical research on cancer of the breast, colorectum, and head and neck, Leffall has served as an educator at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
[Source: Emily McMurray, Ed., Notable Twentieth Century Scientists (Gale Research Inc., ITP, 1995).]
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