Since its founding in 1898, RPCI has been a crucible for historic discoveries.

Among its landmark achievements:

• Launched the first cancer chemotherapy program in the United States in 1904;
• Discovered and licensed prostate specific antigen (PSA), now used worldwide in the early detection and management of prostate cancer;
• Fostered the development of photodynamic therapy (PDT), now licensed by the Food and Drug Administration and used worldwide for the treatment of a variety of cancers and for macular degeneration (at right: Drs. Thomas Dougherty, Barbara Henderson and Allan Oseroff);
• RPCI geneticists created the first gene library that was used to map and sequence the human genome;
• An RPCI geneticist was one of a handful of researchers who led teams involved in the international effort to map the human genome; RPCI supplied critically important gene libraries for the project;
• Currently developing a direct-delivery system for oral vaccines that could have practical and economic applications in Third World countries where Hepatitis B virus is epidemic;
• RPCI’s Center for Pharmacology and Therapeutics is one of only a few centers in the nation capable for taking drug development from the conceptual stage through clinical trials and FDA approval within the confines of a single institution.