Emil Freireich
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Emil J. Freireich (March 16, 1927 – February 1, 2021) was an American hematologist, oncologist, and cancer biologist. He was recognized as a pioneer in the treatment of cancer and use of chemotherapy and is often known as the father of modern leukemia therapy.


Early life

Freireich was born in Chicago on March 16, 1927. His Jewish parents, Mary (Klein) and David Freireich, immigrated to the United States from Hungary. He grew up in poverty during the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. His father died when he was two years old, and his mother worked in a factory to support Emil and his elder sister. After winning a science fair, a teacher recommended that he consider going to college. He attended the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
at the age of 16 with the help of donations from neighbors, and later from scholarships. He was medically excused from being drafted into
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
because of a broken leg. He earned his M.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1949. After graduation from medical school, he did an internship at Cook County Hospital. However, he was fired due to a dispute with the administrators, after he attempted to treat a patient with heart failure who had been transferred to the hospital's "death room" and left for dead. As a result, he moved to Presbyterian Hospital of Chicago where he studied internal medicine under Howard Armstrong. He subsequently studied hematology under Joe Ross at Mass Memorial Hospital in Boston, and published a study on
anemia Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, th ...
during his time there. It was there that he also met his wife, Haroldine Cunningham, who worked as a nurse at the hospital. He moved to the
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
in 1955 to avoid being drafted into the army as a physician by joining the Public Health Service. One decade later, he joined the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, together with
Emil Frei Emil "Tom" Frei III (February 21, 1924 – April 30, 2013) was an American physician and oncologist. He was the former director and former physician-in-chief of the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. He was also the Richard a ...
, his friend and co-worker at the
National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...
(NCI). They were tasked with creating a chemotherapy program.


Combination chemotherapy

In 1965, Freireich, Frei, and
James F. Holland James Frederick Holland (May 16, 1925 – March 22, 2018) was an American physician and Distinguished Professor of Neoplastic Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Early in his career, he had worked for the National ...
hypothesized that cancer could best be treated by combinations of drugs, each with a different mechanism of action. Cancer cells could conceivably mutate to become resistant to a single agent, but by using different drugs concurrently it would be more difficult for the tumor to develop resistance to the combination. After many experimental challenges, Holland, Freireich, and Frei simultaneously administered
methotrexate Methotrexate (MTX), formerly known as amethopterin, is a chemotherapy agent and immune-system suppressant. It is used to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases, and ectopic pregnancies. Types of cancers it is used for include breast cancer, leuke ...
,
vincristine Vincristine, also known as leurocristine and marketed under the brand name Oncovin among others, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat a number of types of cancer. This includes acute lymphocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, Hodgkin's ...
,
6-mercaptopurine Mercaptopurine (6-MP), sold under the brand name Purinethol among others, is a medication used for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Specifically it is used to treat acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), Crohn's dise ...
(6-MP) and prednisone, together referred to as the
VAMP regimen VAMP regimen or VAMP chemotherapy is a four-drug combination chemotherapy regimen, used today in the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma. It was one of the earliest combination chemotherapy regimens, originally developed as a treatment for childhood leu ...
, and induced long-term remissions in children with
acute lymphoblastic leukemia Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a cancer of the lymphoid line of blood cells characterized by the development of large numbers of immature lymphocytes. Symptoms may include feeling tired, pale skin color, fever, easy bleeding or bruisin ...
(ALL). With incremental refinements of original regimens, using randomized clinical studies by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Medical Research Council in the UK (UKALL protocols) and German Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster clinical trials group (ALL-BFM protocols), ALL in children has become a largely curable disease. This approach was extended to the lymphomas in 1963 by physicians at the NCI, who ultimately proved that nitrogen mustard, vincristine, procarbazine and prednisone, known as the
MOPP regimen MOPP is a combination chemotherapy regimen used to treat Hodgkin lymphoma. The acronym is derived from the component drugs of the regimen: * (M)ustargen (also known as mechlorethamine, chlormethine, mustine, nitrogen mustard, or MSD) * (O)ncovin ...
, could cure patients with Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Currently, nearly all successful cancer chemotherapy regimens use this paradigm of multiple drugs given simultaneously, called
combination chemotherapy The era of cancer chemotherapy began in the 1940s with the first use of nitrogen mustards and folic acid antagonist drugs. The targeted therapy revolution has arrived, but many of the principles and limitations of chemotherapy discovered by the ...
or polychemotherapy. Freireich stated that he was unfazed by the criticism he initially received for attempting this pioneering method of treatment. He led the Center's Leukemia Research Program during the 1980s and 1990s. He made contributions to over 600 scientific papers and over 100 books. The Center established the Emil J. Freireich Award for Excellence in Education to honor his efforts of setting up graduate teaching programs to promote research. It gives recognition to "members of the teaching faculty for excellence in education contributions".


Later life and death

Freireich was profiled in Malcolm Gladwell's 2013 book, '' David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.'' He was honored as a Fellow of the
American Association for Cancer Research The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's oldest and largest professional association related to cancer research. Based in Philadelphia, the AACR focuses on all aspects of cancer research, including basic, clinical, and t ...
in 2014. He was employed as the Ruth Harriet Ainsworth Chair, Distinguished Teaching Professor, Director of Adult Leukemia Research Program, and Director of Special Medical Education Programs, at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Freireich retired in September 2015, after working at the MD Anderson Cancer Center for 50 years. Nonetheless, he kept on teaching on a part-time basis until the outbreak of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. He went on to participate virtually on the center's key meetings. Freireich died from COVID-19 at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
on February 1, 2021. He was 93; and is survived by his wife, Haroldine, their four children, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.


Selected awards

Freireich was a recipient of numerous awards for his research, including: * 2008 Paul Ehrlich Magic-Bullet Lifetime Achievement Award * 2005 Gerald P. Bodey Sr., Distinguished Award * 2003
Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research The Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research was an annual award given to physicians who contributed important advances to the field of pediatrics, and was the only existing international pediatric award. The prize was created in 2002 by Irene and Abe ...
,
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
* 2001 Cino del Duca Award, 11th International Congress on Anti-Cancer Treatment * 2000 Charles A. LeMaistre Outstanding Achievement Award * 1996 Medical Oncology Fellows Outstanding Teacher Award, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center * 1996 Return of the Child Award,
Leukemia Society of America The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded in 1949, is the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to fighting blood cancer in the world. The LLS's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's l ...
* 1990 First NIH Distinguished Alumni Award * 1983
Charles F. Kettering Prize The Charles F. Kettering Prize was a US$250,000 award given by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation for the most outstanding recent contribution to the diagnosis or treatment of cancer. __TOC__ History The award was named in honor of Charl ...
,
General Motors Cancer Research Foundation The Charles S. Mott Prize was awarded annually by the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation as one of a trio of scientific prizes entirely devoted to cancer research, the other two being the Charles F. Kettering Prize and the Alfred P. Sloan, J ...
* 1981 Jeffrey A. Gottlieb Memorial Award, MD Anderson Cancer Center * 1979 de Villiers International Achievement Award, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society * 1976 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award and Lecture, ASCO * 1972
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Medicine; almost 5 ...


See also

* History of cancer chemotherapy


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freireich, Emil J. 1927 births 2021 deaths Scientists from Chicago American oncologists American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Cancer researchers University of Illinois alumni Fellows of the AACR Academy Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas