Beer, Noble Earn Places in Canadian Medical Hall of Fame for Research on Anti-Cancer Drug
Vancouver -- Like the six other researchers and physicians to be inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame today, BC Cancer Agency scientists Dr. Charles T. Beer and the late Dr. Robert L. Noble changed medical history. Their major contribution was the isolation and development of Canada’s first anti-cancer drug, vinblastine, derived from the Madagascar periwinkle plant. Vinblastine is used to treat many cancers, particularly Hodgkin’s disease, testicular cancer and breast cancer. 

While at the University of Western Ontario in 1958, Noble, a medical scientist, discovered the effects of extracts of the Madagascar periwinkle on the body’s blood-forming system and Beer, a biochemist, isolated and purified the active substance, vinblastine. They also worked together at the BC Cancer Agency until Noble died in 1990. Their work is considered a milestone in the history of cancer drug development.

"Dr. Noble’s expertise in medical experimentation and my experience in the chemistry and pharmacology of natural and medicinal products were a happy combination," says Beer, an honorary senior research scientist in the department of Cancer Endocrinology at the BC Cancer Agency and a professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Noble, Beer and Dr. Peter Gout, a researcher in Cancer Endocrinology at the BC Cancer Agency collaborated on several projects, including research on cancer of the lymph nodes, to discover new, improved therapies. Beer, now in his ‘80s, continues to work with Gout.

The list of 1997 Canadian Medical Hall of Fame inductees: Dr. Charles Beer; Dr. Wilfred Bigelow; Dr. Henri Breault; Sir Wilfred Grenfell; Dr. Pierre Masson; Dr. Brenda Milner, Dr. Robert Noble; and Dr. Louis Siminovitch.

For more information, call Libby Brown, Public Relations at 877-6107.