History of the Department
The McGill University Department of Oncology was founded in 1990 by then Dean of Medicine, Dr. Richard Cruess. It was the first such department in Canada, having been made possible by a generous donation from the Bronfman family in memory of Minda de Gunzburg, daughter of Samuel and Saidye Bronfman and wife of Baron Alain de Gunzburg. A second generous donation from Marjorie and Gerald Bronfman allowed clinical research in oncology at McGill to flourish, and in May 1992, the Gerald Bronfman Centre for Clinical Research in Oncology officially opened its doors. That building is currently the home base for the Department of Oncology and the location of the department’s administrative offices. Other departmental programs currently headquartered in the building include the centralized Clinical Research Program, the Division of Cancer Epidemiology, Cancer Genetics, the Cancer Nutrition-Rehabilitation program, and the McGill Programs in Whole Person Care.
The new Department of Oncology had a classical divisional structure in which the erstwhile Department of Radiation Oncology nobly accepted its role as a division within the department, the mcc became the Division of Basic Cancer Research, and mcc Clinical Research was recognized as the new Division of Clinical Oncology. To these were added the divisions of Epidemiology and of Palliative Care. However, right from the start, it was evident that modifications were required. Within the first 18 months, “Clinical Trials Operations” was established and a Pediatric Oncology division was created, as was a transdivisional section of Experimental Therapeutics, with the goal of generating a greater number of investigator-initiated trials.
Further changes followed, such that by 1995, the Division of Clinical Oncology was split into the divisions of Medical Oncology and of Surgical Oncology. In addition, 13 trans-hospital multidisciplinary research sections were created to develop, review, and oversee clinical research activities for various tumour types—for example, leukemia, lymphoma, melanoma, neuro-oncology, endocrine/biologics, breast cancer, and so on. The department encompassed research and training at the Montreal General Hospital, The Royal Victoria Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, and the Sir Mortimer B. Davis–Jewish General Hospital. In addition to Clinical Trials Operations at the Gerald Bronfman Centre, the early 1990s saw the creation of the Clinical Research Unit at the Sir Mortimer B. Davis–Jewish General Hospital, the focal point for phase i and complex phase ii clinical trials.