Researcher’s findings changed cancer treatments

Dr. Beatrice Mintz, a cancer researcher whose many groundbreaking discoveries included the crucial finding that certain cancerous cells could be tamed by contact with normal neighboring cells, without the use of harsh treatments like chemotherapy and radiation, died Jan. 3 at her home near Philadelphia. She was 100.

The cause was heart failure after a long battle with dementia, said Bob Spallone, her executor and a colleague at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, where Mintz was on staff for more than 60 years.

Mintz was an embryologist whose work spanned a number of disciplines, and her pioneering contributions have proved essential in helping researchers unravel some of the complexities of how cancer operates.

“She made foundational discoveries ... that paved the way for tremendous progress in our understanding of cancer,” Margaret Foti , chief executive of the American Association for Cancer Research, said in a statement.

Perhaps her most far-reaching finding was her demonstration in 1968 that certain deadly cancer cells could be inserted into mouse embryos and, to everyone’s astonishment, a normal mouse would develop. It was not that the neighboring cells killed the cancer cells; they somehow instructed the cancer cells to revert to a benign state and then contributed to making a normal mouse.

This suggested that the neighboring tissue could help tame tumor cells more gently than radiation or chemotherapy. Drugs designed to mimic these normalizing effects are now part of many cancer therapy regimens.

Tommy Leonardi / New York Times Beatrice Mintz was a groundbreaking cancer researcher.