Donald Lee Morton was an American surgical oncologist who was best known for developing sentinel lymph node evaluation, a procedure that, by some estimates, saves the US healthcare system nearly $4 billion annually in the treatment of melanoma and breast cancer.
13 Facts About Donald Morton
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Donald Morton published in excess of 600 articles in peer reviewed journals and received funding for his research from the National Institutes of Health for 35 years.
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Dr Morton trained more than 100 postdoctoral fellows, most of whom hold academic positions in medical schools or cancer institutes.
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Donald Morton was born and raised in Richwood, West Virginia, the son of a coal miner.
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Donald Morton grew up during the Great Depression in a home without running water or electricity.
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Donald Morton ended up moving to California where he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley in 1955.
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Donald Morton then went on to earn a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco in 1958.
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Donald Morton later returned to California and joined the faculty at UCLA, where he became Chief of Surgical Oncology in 1971.
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Dr Donald Morton operated the clinic while Michael Wayne, John Wayne's eldest son, served as chair of the board until his death in 2003.
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In 1991, seeking more space, Donald Morton expanded the clinic into the John Wayne Cancer Institute and affiliated with St John's Health Center in nearby Santa Monica, California.
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Dr Donald Morton was a past President of the International Sentinel Node Society, the Society of Surgical Oncology and the World Federation of Surgical Oncology Societies.
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Donald Morton died of heart failure at the age of 79 on January 10,2014.
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Donald Morton is survived by his second wife, Lorraine, whom he married in 1989; daughters Danielle Morton, Christin Kazmierczak, Laura Morton Rowe, and Diana Morton McAlpine; son Donald L Morton Jr.