How ‘Patron Saint of Renegades’ Transformed Cancer Care

Chinese American physician researcher Min Chiu Li, MD, liked breaking barriers and busting chops.

Min Chiu Li, MD

At a time when virtually every cancer researcher in the US was White, he landed a job at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the 1950s. As colleagues got along to get along, he made enemies galore. Then he went rogue, insisting on treating patients with chemotherapy beyond the point when their tumors had disappeared.

The strategy turned out to be the right approach, even though Li lost his job over his failure to follow the rules. His work helped transform cancer therapy by showing how biomarkers tell the real story of how treatment is working.

Li and his colleague Roy Hertz, MD, “set the stage for a modern approach to chemotherapy, set the stage for hope,” Alan J. Hunte