Abigail Adams Historical Society Partners with Thomas Crane Public Library and South Shore Hospital to Present Abigail Adams Smith and the Evolution of Breast Cancer Treatment from Colonial America to Today
Tuesday, October 3, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the Community Meeting Room, Thomas Crane Public Library, 40 Washington St., Quincy.
Abigail and John Adams’s daughter Abigail (“Nabbyâ€) Adams Smith, born in Braintree (now Quincy) in 1765, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1810, undergoing a radical mastectomy in 1811. Despite the surgery, cancer spread throughout her body, causing her death at age 48 in 1813. Abigail Adams expressed her grief at the loss of her daughter with the words, “The wound which has lacerated my Bosom cannot be healed.â€
Two experts on breast cancer and the history of medicine will discuss Nabby Smith’s case. David Jones, M.D., Ph.D., the A. Bernard Ackerman Professor of the Culture of Medicine at Harvard University, and Suniti Nimbkar, M.D., FACS, medical director of the Breast Care Center at South Shore Hospital in clinical affiliation with Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, will offer their insights into the evolution of the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer from the early 19th century to today.
Admission is free; reservations are not necessary.
