Focusing at such high magnification on an object that can be up to 200x smaller than a strand of hair has proven to be the most difficult but necessary aspect of microscope examinations.
Myrtelle May Canavan and Elaine Jaffe are two women in their specialized fields who have made great contributions to the microscopic science of pathology.
What is pathology? Pathology is a branch of science that focuses on the study and diagnosis of diseases through the examination of biopsy samples, such as tissues and tumors. This science contains two main categories, Anatomical and Clinical Pathology, along with many other subspecialties. Being a part of two different generations of pathology, Canavan and Jaffe’s achievements help build the timeline of how women participated in the field.
Myrtelle May Canavan
Myrtelle May Canavan, born in 1879 and starting her career in 1905, is credited with being one of the first female pathologists in the United States. At that time, pathology was not considered a field for studying diseases through sampling, so the few pathologists practicing provided direct patient care. Canavan’s work focused on the connection between the brain and the nervous system to the rest of the body.
Along with writing 79 articles throughout her career, she’s worked at numerous universities as a professor, and was the head laboratory pathologist because of her neurology specialty at what is now known as the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. Her most well-known accomplishment was in 1931 when she co-wrote a paper on a young child’s death whose brain had a spongy white section. This degenerative disorder of the central nervous system is now named “Canavan’s Disease.” Canavan held the position of curator of the Warren Anatomical Museum of the Harvard Medical School until she retired, and she died in 1953 due to Parkinson’s disease, ten years after Elaine Jaffe was born.
Elaine Jaffe
Elaine Jaffe, born in 1943, started her studies through prestigious universities like Cornell and completed her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1969. With her love for pathology sprouting in her second year at medical school, she joined a resident program at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a hematopathologist focusing on the study of lymphomas.
Later, she attended an International Lymphoma Study Group meeting from around 1991-1994 with hematopathologists from around the world. There, her work revolutionized the classification of lymphomas, which was later adopted by the World Health Organization. Jaffe has received numerous awards including the NCI Director’s Award for Career Lifetime and a pathology research award from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS); commentary from the DHHS award referenced her transformative prognosis of lymphomas on a worldwide scale. Presently, Elaine Jaffe continues her work as a Senior Investigator at the National Cancer Institute within the National Institutes of Health.
While one is an early 20th-century neuropathologist and the other is a contemporary hematopathologist, both Myrtelle May Canavan and Elaine Jaffe are women who significantly contributed to their fields and shaped the past and present for women in pathology.
Works Cited
McGill University. “McGill University.” DEPARTMENT of PATHOLOGY, 28 Jan. 2015, http://www.mcgill.ca/pathology/about/definition. Accessed 28 May 2025.
“Dr. Myrtelle May Canavan.” Changing the Face of Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine,
https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_54.html. Accessed 29 May 2025.
“Elaine S. Jaffe, M.D. | Center for Cancer Research.” Cancer.gov, May 2016, ccr.cancer.gov/staff-directory/elaine-s-jaffe. Accessed 29 May 2025.
“Myrtelle Canavan.” Life in the Fast Lane, https://litfl.com/myrtelle-canavan/. Accessed 28 May 2025.
The ASCO Post Staff. “Daughter of Immigrants Who Fled the Pogroms, She Followed a Love of Science
into a Noted Career in Cancer Pathology.” The ASCO Post, 3 June 2023, https://ascopost.com/issues/june-3-2023-narratives-special-issue/daughter-of-immigrants-who-fled-the-pogroms-she-followed-a-love-of-science-into-a-noted-career-in-cancer-pathology/. Accessed 29 May 2025.
The Royal College of Pathologists. “Honouring Pioneering Women in Pathology on International
Women’s Day.” The Royal College of Pathologists, https://www.rcpath.org/discover-pathology/news/honouring-pioneering-women-in-pathology-on-international-womens-day.html Accessed 27 May 2025.
About the Author
Hi! My name is Ana and I am an up-coming senior in highschool. I am extremely fascinated by pathology and hope to have a career in it in the future. Being able to determine diseases just by looking at something so small is a talent that can help many and I hope to contribute to that. I will continue to work hard to the best of my abilities to share what I aspire to do!
Her Stem Space 
Leave a reply to Madison Cancel reply