James Lawson (Australian doctor)
James "Jim" Sutherland Lawson is an Australian public health doctor and scientist, known for research on breast cancer and for public health services and prevention programs, currently in use in Australian and international public health services.
Early life
Jim Lawson is the youngest of three children of Jack and Kitty Lawson of Castlemaine, Victoria and the grandson of Harry Lawson, the 27th Premier of Victoria. During the Second World War, Lawson attended the local primary and high school, then he was sent as a boarder to the private Scotch College in Melbourne. Subsequently, he began medical studies at the University of Melbourne, completed with the prize in surgery and a top place as an intern at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Following his interest in child health, Lawson began training at Melbourne’s Royal Children's Hospital.In 1961, he joined an International Red Cross expedition to the Congo. There he managed together with Gerry Joyce a District Hospital that had been abandoned by the Belgians following the Congo independence movement and revolution. The context was difficult, as a result of the period of turmoil of those years.
Afterwards, he came back to the Children’s Hospital, where he met his future wife, Margaret Ralton.
Papua New Guinea
Soon after their wedding, Lawson and Margaret left for Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. There he managed the children’s ward of the local hospital. Lawson was later awarded a Doctorate in Medicine for his research into the best ways of treating Papuan children suffering from a range of infectious conditions, including pneumonia, diarrhoeal disease and meningitis.Australian health system management
Lawson and his family returned to Melbourne, following his appointment as Medical Director of the Western General Hospital. He later moved to Hobart, as Director of Tasmanian Hospital and Health Services. During these years, he became involved in activism, writing and publishing reformist books and articles concerning ways of improving the hospital and health system.In 1974, Lawson was named Director of Health for Northern Sydney. Here he developed a range of innovative services, which were afterwards introduced as a standard part of both Australian and international public health services:
- the organisation of co-ordinated hospital and health services on a community wide basis,
- the provision of expert hospital emergency services in place of trainee medical officer based services,
- development of co-ordinated rehabilitation and geriatric services.
- mandatory safety architectural glass in windows and doors to reduce profound lacerations,
- safe children’s playgrounds,
- safety fences around private swimming pools,
- safe rules for rugby players to prevent quadriplegic neck injuries,
- health promotion among isolated rural Aboriginal communities in New South Wales,
- the successful development of groups as a means of improving social relationships among Australian mothers of new born infants.
Academia
Breast and prostate cancer research
In 1998, one of Lawson's post graduate students noted the strikingly lower risk of breast cancer among Asian as compared to Western women and the fact that this risk rose rapidly when Asian women migrated to the West. Lawson initiated further research, the first Australian investigations into viruses as potential causes of human breast cancer. The innovative outcomes of this research are:- the first identification by molecular methods of mouse mammary tumor viruses, the known cause of breast cancer in mice, in human milk,
- the first identification of high risk human papilloma viruses in human breast cancer cell cultures,
- the first identification of HPV associated koilocytes in human breast tumors,
- the development of unambiguous evidence that high risk HPVs are present in human breast cancer and that they have oncogenic characteristics,
- the unambiguous evidence that MMTV is located in breast cancer cell nuclei and is associated with high expression of the oncogene WNT1,
- the first indication that some breast cancers may be as a consequence of sexually transmitted HPVs,
- the development of evidence which contradicts the traditional scientific wisdom that breast feeding is not associated with breast cancer,
- the development of evidence that localised breast cancers may have systemic influences in skin and hair,
- the first recognition that some MMTV positive breast cancers may have similar morphology to MMTV positive mouse mammary tumors,
- contradiction of the scientific belief that estrogen receptor expression in normal breast tissues is higher in breast cancer of Western as compared to Asian women thus supporting the use of tamoxifen as a treatment for breast cancer in Asia.
Books
Lawson has written 9 books, including| Year | Titles |
| 1964 | Paediatric Handbook – The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne |
| 1999 | Breast cancer – can you prevent it |
| 2001 | Public Health Australia |
Awards
| Year | Titles |
| 1961 | Meritorious Service Award. International Red Cross, Geneva. |
| 1972 | National Military Service Medal. Anniversary 1951-1972 |
| 2002 | Member of the Order of Australia |