James Stephen Ewing ( YOO-ing; December 25, 1866 in Pittsburgh – May 16, 1943 in New York City) was an American pathologist. He was the first professor of pathology at Cornell University and discovered a form of bone cancer that was later named after him, Ewing sarcoma.
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Early life and education
James Ewing, was born in 1866 to a prominent family of Pittsburgh. When he was 14 he was diagnosed with osteomyelitis and was bedridden for two years. He first completed his B.A. in 1888 at Amherst College and then studied medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, from 1888 to 1891.
Career
He returned to the College of Physicians and Surgeons as instructor in histology (1893-1897), and clinical pathology (1897-1898). After a brief stint as a surgeon with the US Army, Ewing was appointed in 1899 the first professor of clinical pathology at the newly formed Medical College of Cornell University in New York, where he was the only full-time professor. In 1902, Ewing helped to establish one of the first funds for cancer research, endowed by Mrs. Collis P. Huntington. With his discoveries using that research funding, Ewing became the most important experimental oncologist and helped found the American Society for the Control of Cancer, now the American Cancer Society, in 1913. Ewing was also one of the co-founders of the American Association for Cancer Research in 1907, and served three terms as its president: in 1907-1908, 1908-1909 and 1937-1938. In 1906 Ewing, working with S.P. Beebe and collaborators, showed the first proof that a cancer (canine transmissible venereal tumor in dogs) could be transmissible.