Odile Schweisguth

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Odile Schweisguth (1913-2002) was a French physician who is considered the pioneer of pediatric oncology in Europe.^[1]

She was born in 1913 in Remiremont in the Vosges department in France. After a training in the Red Cross Nursing School, she started her medical studies in Nancy in 1932. In 1934, her family transferred to Paris and she joined them.^[2] She continued her studies in the University of Paris, where she received her first medical degree in 1936. After the Second World War, she obtained her doctorate in 1946, with a thesis in oncology under the direction of .^[3]

She then oriented her medical interests on pediatrics and started to work with Robert Debré at the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris.^[4]

In 1948, René Huguenin, a professor of pathology and director of the Institut Gustave Roussy (IGR) in Villejuif, south of Paris, one the world’s leading cancer centers, wanted to open a pediatric section. He invited Schweisguth to join the staff.^[5] She started as a consultant and became the head of the pediatric oncology ward, the first one of that kind in Europe, in April 1952.^[6] She retired from the institute but not from the profession in 1978.^[7]

Bibliography[]

• Arty R. Coppes-Zantinga, Jean-Michel Zucker, and Max J. Coppes, "Odile Schweisguth, MD, Alma Mater of Pediatric Oncology", Medical and Pediatric Oncology 34:59–60 (2000
• Luisa Massimo, "Odile Schweisguth: Pioneer of European Pediatric Oncology", Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, 20:75–77, 2003

References[]