Freddy Homburger (8 February 1916 in Sankt Gallen,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

- 25 September 2001 in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

) was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

-born

oncologist Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''� ...

. Homburger came to the United States in 1941 to continue his medical education, becoming a citizen in 1952. In 1948 Homberger was appointed head of Tufts College Medical School cancer research and cancer control units. In 1973, Homburger was studying the cause of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

and its relation with

cigarette smoking Tobacco smoking is the practice of burning tobacco and ingesting the resulting smoke. The smoke may be inhaled, as is done with cigarettes, or released from the mouth, as is generally done with pipes and cigars. The practice is believed to hav ...

. He succeeded in inducing laryngeal cancer in

hamsters Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera. They have become established as popular small pets. The best-known species of hamster is the golden or Syrian ...

who smoked; however, the Council for Tobacco Research, which was underwriting his research, forbid him to publish his research results as long as he referred to the growths as "cancerous", and threatened to ruin him financially. Homburger, and his suppressed research, gained prominence in 1997 in tobacco-related lawsuits. Homberger was also an artist, an aviator and served as Honorary Consul for Switzerland in Boston from 1966 to 1986. Homberger and his wife Regina Thürlimann collected art and engaged in philanthropical activity.

External links

Transcript of 1997 deposition of Freddy Homburger at TobaccoDocuments.org

References

1916 births 2001 deaths Oncologists Swiss physicians 20th-century Swiss physicians Swiss emigrants to the United States {{Switzerland-scientist-stub