Edward Stewart Newlands

Abstract

Oncologist who improved understanding and treatment of gestational trophoblastic disease. He was born on June 10, 1942, in Edinburgh, UK, and died on Oct 13, 2006, aged 64 years. Edward Newlands made important contributions across many fields of oncology, but perhaps his defining characteristic was the way he combined intellectual rigor with compassion in his work. “He was never extrovert, but he knew what to say and when to say it”, recalls his colleague and friend Barry Hancock, professor of clinical oncology at Sheffield University, Sheffield, UK, who had known him for some 20 years. “His manner with patients was just right and his manner with colleagues was just right.” For most of his career, Newlands worked at Charing Cross Hospital in London, but the impact of his work was felt worldwide. He was the first to show the value of etoposide for treating testicular and ovarian cancers. This, in combination with cisplatin, has helped improve the cure rate for metastatic disease from less than 30% to more than 90%. He also pioneered the development and use of temozolomide for the most common type of brain cancer, which has led to the first significant improvement in survival rates for about 20 years. “All these advances involved important contributions from other researchers, but there can be no question that, in his quiet but determined way, he led many of the principal ideas and brought about the delivery of the most useful outcomes”, said Richard Begent, head of the oncology department at Royal Free and University College Medical School, London. Newlands' major interest was gestational trophoblastic disease, a disease he began treating when he joined Ken Bagshawe's oncology department at Charing Cross Hospital in the mid-1970s. In the clinic, Newlands' compassion and sensitivity were particularly valuable in treating this condition, where the anxiety of a potentially life-threatening cancer is compounded by the grieving that comes with the loss of a pregnancy. “Edward made a number of important innovations to improve understanding and treatment of this disease”, said Newlands' colleague Michael Seckl, professor of molecular cancer at Imperial College, London. The most notable of these contributions may have been the design and use of the EMA/CO (etoposide, methotrexate, actinomycin D/cyclophosphamide and vincristine sulfate) regimen he developed with Bagshawe. This multidrug chemotherapy regimen has proved the most effective treatment for patients with advanced trophoblastic disease and is now widely used internationally, resulting in many women's lives saved. After graduating from Oxford University, Oxford, Newlands trained in London at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, where he subsequently took a PhD in immunology, which led to his interest in oncology. After posts at several of the major teaching hospitals in London, he went to the Charing Cross Hospital in 1974 as lecturer in medical oncology, shortly thereafter to become senior lecturer and then reader, and in 1991 to become professor of cancer medicine at the Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, subsequently the Imperial College School of Medicine. In 1983 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. His work was always characterised by his “over-arching concern with truth and an unwillingness to allow it to be compromised, least of all by administrative convenience”, said Seckl. Although Newlands was primarily a clinician, he also took part in many early stage clinical trials. “He had a deep-rooted interest in the science of new drugs”, said Hancock. For example, he and others showed that temozolomide when combined with radiotherapy significantly improved survival of patients with gliomas, the first major advance in this disease for some 20 years. “There is still much to do with this type of cancer but Edward's contribution was very important”, said Begent. Outside work, Newlands' love of Mozart was balanced by his loathing for Wagner. “He believed in science and not in God but thoroughly enjoyed pre-1791 religious music and in particular masses”, said Seckl. “The structure of this music is perhaps reflected in the orderly way in which he conducted his science, clinical practice, and personal life.” Newlands took early retirement in 2004, partly to further his desire to travel without professional commitments. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth.