History
The Victorian Cancer Institute's cancer hospital was given the title "Peter MacCallum Clinic" after the (then) Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Melbourne University, Peter MacCallum, who along with Rutherford Kaye-Scott had a significant role in its founding. At the time (c. 1949) it was a common practice not to inform patients that they had cancer. It was thought that, because radiotherapy was also quite commonly used at that time to treat non-cancerous conditions such as severe acne, "strawberry birthmarks", frozen shoulders, keloid scars — and, also, to provide a valuable, non-invasive means for medical sterilization — the name "Peter MacCallum Clinic" would be much less threatening because the "Clinic" could be "positioned" as a specialist radiotherapeutic Centre, rather it being thought of as a dedicated cancer hospital.
Read more about this topic: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
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