Mildred Vera Peters, OC (28 April 1911 – 1 October 1993) was a Canadian oncologist and clinical investigator.
[1] In 1950 she published a landmark paper demonstrating for the first time that many patients with early Hodgkin's disease, then considered incurable, could be completely cured if given high-dose radiation.
[3] Her research, carried out at the Princess Margaret Hospital, demonstrated that breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) followed by radiation was just as effective as radical mastectomy which had a significant impact on the lives of the many women who experience breast cancer.
[4][5][6] Peters' original research was met with skepticism by the medical establishment in the 1950s and she remarked in an interview that it took over 10 years for her findings to be accepted.
[5] She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1975, raised to Officer in 1977, and was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2010.