During the past 31 years, the CHRISTUS Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research and the Stehlin & deIpolyi Oncology Clinic have pioneered some notable firsts which have established their reputations internationally as premier cancer research and treatment facilities. Some of their accomplishments include:

CHRISTUS Stehlin Foundation surgeons in 1970 were among the first in North America to recommend conservative treatment of selected breast cancer patients with a combination of partial mastectomy (lumpectomy) and immediate reconstruction, followed by radiotherapy.

Unlike the vast majority of cancer research conducted on tumors arising in laboratory animals, all laboratory work of The CHRISTUS Stehlin Foundation is conducted on cancers removed from patients. To our knowledge, we are the only research laboratory in the world limiting its investigations to human cancers.

The CHRISTUS Stehlin Foundation pioneered the development and use of the nude mouse in cancer research, establishing that if an anticancer drug works against a human tumor implanted in the nude mouse, 85% of the time the drug will also be effective in treating human patients. As a result of our successful work over a period of more than 25 years, the nude mouse now represents the final non-human studies required by the National Cancer Institute for determining the effectiveness of potential anticancer agents.

Dr. Stehlin was the first to combine heat (hyperthermia) and chemotherapy for the treatment of advanced melanoma of the arms and legs, resulting in a 300% increase in survival rates and virtually eliminating the need for amputation.

The CHRISTUS Stehlin Foundation was among the first to recognize the importance of addressing the psychological needs of cancer patients, establishing the Living Room at St. Joseph Hospital in 1980, "the Living Room" quickly became a prototype for cancer treatment centers around the world.

The CHRISTUS Stehlin Foundation conducted one of the largest studies of liver cancer ever reported in the medical literature. The study, published in The Annals of Surgery in 1988, involved 414 of our patients.

Our physicians were the leaders in the development of regional intra-arterial chemotherapy, in which large concentrations of anticancer drugs can be delivered directly to specific organs or areas of the body affected by cancer.

The CHRISTUS Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research was the first in the country to test the promising new anticancer drug, Camptothecin, in human clinical trials. Having pioneered research and development of Camptothecin and several of its derivatives in the late 1980's, Stehlin Foundation research scientists were also among an international group of scientists who resurrected interest in the camptothecins after a 20-year hiatus.