The name of cancer pioneer Dr. Phil Gold permanently etched on research institute

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The pavilion housing the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre at the Montreal General Hospital has been named for Dr. Phil Gold to honour the physician, scientist, professor and author for a remarkable 60-year career, the hospital’s foundation has announced.

Gold, 87, is a former physician-in-chief at the Montreal General, professor emeritus in McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, former chairman of McGill’s department of medicine and a pioneer in cancer research.

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In 1965, along with Dr. Samuel Freedman, he discovered the first biomarker for cancer, the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), which led to the development of the first blood test approved internationally for the detection and management of cancer in humans. The work has had a significant impact on the lives of cancer patients; to this day, the CEA blood test is used to diagnose and manage cancers of the large intestine and rectum.

Gold was the first director of the McGill Cancer Centre, today the Goodman Cancer Institute. An annual lecture inaugurated by the institute in 2017 in recognition of his contribution to cancer research, the Phil Gold Distinguished Lectureship was given on Wednesday.

In addition to his administrative, academic and scientific accomplishments, Gold “has also been a caring physician and a generous leader who placed Montreal on the world stage for cancer research and shaped the RI-MUHC,” said MUHC president and executive director Dr. Lucie Opatrny.

The Montreal General site of the MUHC research institute is adjacent to the hospital. The lettering mounted outside the research institute last week, Pavillon Dr. Phil Gold, is visible from Côte-des-Neiges Rd.

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Representatives of the MUHC, the RI-MUHC and the Montreal General Hospital Foundation and members of Gold’s family, as well as colleagues attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside the pavilion late Wednesday afternoon.

Naming the building in honour of Gold is “a tribute to the years he has spent dedicating his life to scientific research and to improving the health of Canadians,” Rhian Touyz, executive director and chief scientific officer of the RI-MUHC, said in a statement.

The Dr. Phil Gold Pavilion accommodates many of the researchers in the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation as well as those involved in clinical trials and translational research, she said. It will also house new research programs in surgery robotics.

“The Dr. Phil Gold Pavilion will stand as a testament to his legacy of discovery, innovation and care,” said Stephanie Riddell, president and CEO of the MGH Foundation. “Dr. Gold is not only a brilliant researcher and an exceptional leader, but above all, an unmatched mentor. Everyone he has trained can attest to this, and that’s why his name truly belongs on this building,”

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Said Gold, a Montreal native who attended Bancroft School and Baron Byng High School, on Wednesday: “I spent my life doing three things; seeing patients, doing research and teaching — and it was extremely rewarding in every fashion.”

Since his retirement as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in 2020, he has had time for reflection, he said, and to spend more time at home with his wife, Evelyn. The couple will celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary this summer. He has written an engaging memoir, Gold’s Rounds: Medicine, McGill and Growing Up Jewish in Montreal (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023).

He continues to teach second-year medical students as they first arrive on the wards at the Montreal General. “These are the people who are going to look after us. We need them desperately,” he said.

Gold’s contributions have been recognized with many awards and honours. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada (1986), a Grand Officer of the Ordre national du Québec (2019) and a member of the Academy of Great Montrealers (1986). He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1977 and, in 1978, was awarded the Gairdner Foundation International Award, awarded for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. In 2010, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

There are few honours Gold has not had during his career, Riddell said. “Naming the building was something the foundation wanted to do.”

One mission of the hospital’s foundation is to invest in transformative initiatives, she said, and to inspire others in philanthropy as well as future generations of doctors to do research.

Gold has cited the importance of funding for scientists at the beginning of their career, when they are too junior to be considered for significant federal and provincial grants, Riddell said. That’s where philanthropy comes in — to help support the next generation, she said.

The Phil Gold Research and Education Fund, endowed recently by the Montreal General hospital’s foundation, has already raised $6.5 million, the foundation announced on Wednesday.

sschwartz@postmedia.com

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