An Homage to Two Explorers of Uncharted Cancer Waters

[摘要] In recent weeks oncology lost two great physician-scientistleaders, Emil J Freireich and Joseph V. Simone [1, 2]. Comprehensive biographies of both men have appeared (https://ascopost.com/news/february-2021/emil-j-freireichmd-dies-at-93/ and https://blogs.stjude.org/progress/ joseph-v-simone-st-jude/) [3, 4]. As a friend and associate of both men, and as a witness and participant in that remarkable period when cancer treatment became a curative reality, I have very vivid and fond memories of both. As it happens, both J (“J” stood for no name—it was just an initial) and Joe came from Chicago, where they were raised in immigrant communities. J’s parents immigrated in the 1920s from Hungary. His father died when he was just 2, and he was raised by his mother in relative poverty, but he proved to be a remarkable student, finishing medical school at the University of Illinois at age 22. J pursued further training in Boston at Boston University’s Massachusetts Memorial Hospital in the Hematology Department and, in 1955, was recruited to join the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a junior investigator under Emil J. Frei (Tom). J recalled his first visit to NCI, where he found Tom’s name on the door, and thought perhaps they had mistakenly truncated his name, Emil J Freireich. He walked into the office and found a tall string bean sitting at the desk. It was Frei’s office. The combination of Frei and Freireich was sensational—the pair creating the first curative multidrug protocols for childhood leukemia and J solving the vexing problem of hemorrhagic deaths with his invention of platelet transfusion made possible by pheresis technology. J witnessed futile attempts to treat sepsis in neutropenic patients and reasoned that early introduction of multidrug broad-spectrum antibiotics in febrile neutropenia could save children during this crucial interval. Together, Frei and Freireich created a format for intensive, and curative, chemotherapy of this disease. At the same time, Don Pinkel and, later, Joe Simone, furthered this work with improved chemotherapy, CNS prophylaxis, and large randomized trials at St. Jude.

[学科分类] 地质学