Dr. Oscar Auerbach; Pathologist Found Smoking Link to Cancer

Dr. Oscar Auerbach, 92, a pathologist who first found evidence linking smoking and lung cancer. Auerbach’s research in the 1960s was cited in the first surgeon general’s report about the dangers of smoking. Auerbach advanced cancer research by studying thousands of slides of human tissue, coding each slide by clues to cell damage, and then determining whether the person had cancer or a precancerous condition. By using slides of individual patients, Auerbach found that the more cigarettes a patient smoked, the greater the degree of lung damage found in the tissue. Although he never graduated from high school or college, Auerbach was admitted to New York University by passing the entrance exam. He later transferred to New York Medical College, where he received his medical degree in 1929, and eventually taught medicine. Auerbach had worked at Veterans Administration hospitals for most of his career. On Wednesday in Livingston, N.J.