Emil J. Freireich

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Emil Jay Freireich (born March 16, 1927 in Chicago , † February 1, 2021 in Houston , Texas ) was an American medical doctor ( oncology , hematology ). He conducted research on leukemia and was a pioneer in the development of chemotherapeutic agents for cancer and especially combined chemotherapy for acute leukemia.

life and work

Freireich was the son of Jewish immigrants from Hungary, his father died when he was two years old. He grew up in poor circumstances during the time of the Great Depression and studied medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor's degree in 1947 and an MD in 1949. He was then a doctor internship (internship) at Cook County Hospital and graduated 1951 to 1953 residency in internal medicine at the Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago. From 1953 to 1955 he was an assistant at Boston University, where he drew attention to himself through a study on anemia, which brought him an invitation to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1955 , where he was until 1965, most recently as senior investigator and director of the Leukemia Service. From 1965 he was a professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. There he built up chemotherapy with Emil Frei III , with whom he had already worked at the NCI - before that, they relied primarily on radiation therapy and surgery.

At the National Cancer Institute, he worked on childhood leukemia ( acute lymphoblastic leukemia ). First, he solved the problem that many of the patients were bleeding to death by introducing platelet transfusions. He then turned to chemotherapy and experimented with combination preparations of chemotherapeutic agents, stimulated by the success of combination preparations in tuberculosis. He achieved successes in remission and in 1965 published a comprehensive study with Frei. On this development he worked at the National Cancer Institute with Emil Frei III. and James F. Holland together.

In 1972 he received the Lasker ~ DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award and in 1983 the Kettering Prize . For 2019, Freireich was awarded the AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research .

In 1982 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Illinois (Ph.D.).

literature

  • Vincent T. DeVita, Edward Chu: A history of cancer chemotherapy. In: Cancer Research. Volume 68, 2008, pp. 8643-8653, online

Fonts (selection)

  • E. Frei III, EJ Freireich, E. Gehan, inter alia: Studies of sequential and combination antimetabolite therapy in acute leukemia: 6-mercaptopurine and methotrexate: from the acute leukemia group. In: Blood. Volume 18, 1961, pp. 431-454.
  • EJ Freireich, M. Karon, E. Frei III: Quadruple combination therapy (VAMP) for acute lymphocytic leukemia of childhood. In: Proc. At the. Assoc. Cancer Res. Vol. 5, 1964, p. 20.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ E. Frei, EJ Freireich: Progress and Perspective in the Chemotherapy of Acute Leukemia. In: Advances in Chemotherapy. Volume 2, 1965, pp. 269-298.
personal data
SURNAME Freireich, Emil J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Freireich, Emil Jay
SHORT DESCRIPTION American medic
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 2021
Place of death Houston