Thomas Dao

Ling Yuan "Thomas" Dao (April 27, 1921 – July 16, 2009) was a Chinese American physician and specialist in breast cancer, its causes and treatment, who was one of the earliest proponents of minimalist alternatives to radical mastectomy as a treatment option for breast cancer, in addition to advocacy of breast self-examination and mammography as means to detect breast cancer as early as possible.

Early life and education Dao was born on April 27, 1921, in Suzhou, China, where his father was a lawyer.

Medical career He worked for future Nobel Prize winner Dr. Charles Brenton Huggins at the University of Chicago Medical School as a researcher assisting in Huggins' studies of how hormones relate to cancer in humans. There, Dao participated in research studies of treating advanced cases of breast cancer by surgical removal of the adrenal gland and ovaries. By the time of his death, the prevailing standard was a two-step approach in which a patient takes time to consider treatment options with their physician after malignant tumors have been identified. He served at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center until 1988.

Personal Dao was a resident of Williamsville, New York. He and his second wife, whom he married in 1954, had two daughters and two sons; he also had four children from a first marriage that ended in divorce.

He died at age 88 on July 16, 2009, at Hospice Buffalo in Cheektowaga, New York due to Pick's disease.