Henry Pancoast

Henry Khunrath Pancoast (February 26, 1875 – May 20, 1939) was an American radiologist after whom a type of lung tumor is named (Pancoast tumor).

Pancoast was born in Philadelphia to prominent Quaker parents; his father Seth Pancoast^[1] was also a doctor. He was educated at the (Society of) Friends Central High School. He entered the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and graduated in 1898.^[2]

His first medical job was at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1900, he started surgical training there. When the hospital's first skiagrapher retired in 1903, Pancoast applied.

Pancoast was appointed professor of radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1912.^[2] He was the first professor of radiology in the United States.

He died in Merion, Pennsylvania.

References