Edward Stewart Newlands

Edward Stewart Newlands was an oncologist who improved understanding and treatment of gestational trophoblastic disease and developed temozolomide treatment for brain tumours. He was born on 10 June 1942 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and died after a short illness at home in London on 13 October 2006, aged 64 years.

Edward Newlands made significant contributions in many areas of oncology, but perhaps his defining quality was the way he combined intellectual rigour with compassion in his work.

For most of his career, Edward Newlands was based at Charing Cross Hospital in London, but the impact of his work was felt internationally. For example, he was the first to demonstrate the value of etoposide for treating testicular and ovarian germ cell cancers. This, in combination with cisplatin, has helped improve the cure rate for metastatic disease from less than 30% to over 90%, and is used throughout the world.

Although …