Holleb, Arthur 1921-2006 (Arthur Irving Holleb)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born April 1, 1921, in New York, NY; died of complications from diabetes, October 19, 2006, in Stamford, CT. Physician and author. Holleb was an oncologist who specialized in cancer in women and was instrumental in promoting early detection of breast cancer to reduce mortality rates. A 1941 graduate of Brown University, he earned his medical degree at New York University in 1944. After his internship, Holleb served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1946 to 1948 and then did his residency at Meadowbrook Hospital in Hempstead, New York. He joined New York's Memorial Hospital in 1950, where he was on staff until his 1995 retirement. A surgical oncologist, Holleb specialized in breast and cervical cancer in women. Research led him to believe that it was important for women to begin regular breast screenings by the time they turned forty, and he was instrumental in making such early exams a regular practice in medicine. It is now widely believed that this change in standard exams has greatly lowered deaths due to breast cancer. Holleb played a similar role regarding cervical cancer patients. He pushed for the use of more Pap tests in order to detect this cancer back in the 1960s and 1970s; in addition, the physician was one of the first to warn about the dangers of smoking and its link to lung cancer. The coauthor of You Can Fight Cancer and Win (1977), Holleb also edited several other texts and was a former president of the American Cancer Society.

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PERIODICALS

New York Times, October 31, 2006, p. A23.