Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

The history of Peter Mac is like that of many public hospitals – a need in the community; passion and commitment from influential people; evolutions in medicine and science leading to increasingly specialised pathways; and the inevitable struggle for space, resources and money.

But Peter Mac is dedicated to only one disease with all its complexities and manifestations. This has given the hospital and its staff a deep and abiding sense of purpose over the years. It was also founded to care for cancer patients ‘by means other than surgery’ and with scientific research as its core. This enabled it to shape national and international developments in cancer medicine, science and nursing.

This full colour newspaper style publication utilises the extraordinarily good image collection held by the Peter Mac. It provides a snapshot of the years since 1950 to explore why Peter MacCallum claimed when he opened the Cancer Institute "Nothing but the best is good enough for the treatment of cancer", and whether or not his intentions were fulfilled.

Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, 2009