The treatment of melanoma at Westminster Hospital in the 20th century.

Abstract At Saint Dunstan's Coffee House in 1715 four London men met to form "A charitable proposal for Relieving the Poor and Needy and Other Distressed Persons". The proposal marked the beginnings of Westminster Hospital in London. Following the admission of the first patient in 1720, Westminster Hospital and later Westminster Medical School dominated the medical scene of London for over two and a half centuries until its closure in 1993 and transfer to the new Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. The Hospital and Medical school are credited with pioneering work in the fields of anaesthesia, immunology, bone marrow transplantation and the treatment of cancer. In the 20th century Westminster became a centre of tertiary referrals for cancer and under the leadership of Sir Stanford Cade and later of Gerald Westbury and Kenneth Newton the hospital pioneered the multidisciplinary management of malignant disease exemplified by the internationally- famous Wednesday afternoon clinics where the patients' best interests were discussed and served by a multitude of surgical and medical specialists. This paper focuses on the treatment of melanoma at Westminster Hospital in the 20th Century, placing in perspective the latest therapeutic developments based on the genetics of this cancer.