ASH Clinical News ACN_4.10_FULL ISSUE web | Page 17

UP FRONT
The Society Pages
Remembering Alan Rabson
(1926 – 2018)
Alan Rabson, MD, a long-time
leader at the National Cancer
Institute (NCI), passed away on
July 4, 2018, at the age of 92.
Born in Brooklyn, New York,
Dr. Rabson graduated from the
University of Rochester before
Alan Rabson, MD
attending medical school at the
State University of New York.
His more than 60-year scientific career, the
majority of which was spent at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) and NCI, focused on
tumor virology and cancer pathology.
After serving in the Public Health Service’s
Commissioned Corps during the Korean War (in a
department that eventually became the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention), Dr. Rabson
worked at the University of Michigan and the U.S.
Public Health Service Hospital in New Orleans. He
joined the NIH in 1955 as a pathology anatomy
resident. Shortly thereafter, he was recruited to
study tumor-causing viruses in the NCI’s pathol-
ogy department at the NIH Clinical Center.
Dr. Rabson spent 20 years in the pathology
department at NCI and eventually was named
director of the forerunner to the NCI’s Division
of Cancer Biology. Then, in 1995, he was named
deputy director of the institute by then-NCI
Director Richard Klausner, MD. During his
career, Dr. Rabson also held clinical professor-
ships at The George Washington University and
Georgetown University, and received multiple
awards from the U.S. Public Health Service
before officially retiring from federal service in
2015. He also was named a Scientist Emeritus
at the NCI in 2015.
Dr. Rabson was remembered fondly by mem-
bers of the NCI and NIH, including NCI Director
Norman Sharpless, MD: “There have been few
people like Alan Rabson. The stories of his re-
markable history at NCI, his immense dedication
to his work, and his love for his family are truly
inspiring. It is no overstatement to say that we
have lost a giant.”
NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, also
acknowledged Dr. Rabson’s willingness to help
patients with cancer find the best options for
their care. “Every year since 2012, the NIH Direc-
tor’s Award ceremony has included the Alan S.
Rabson Award for Clinical Care,” Dr. Collins said.
“It goes to a deserving employee who demon-
strates an exceptional commitment to assisting
patients and their families who look to the NIH
for help. Al’s half-century of service stands as
the epitome of personal dedication to patient
care at the NIH.”
Dr. Rabson’s wife of 59 years, Ruth
Kirschstein, MD, passed away in 2009 and
also was a highly respected and accomplished
scientist at NIH. They are survived by their son,
Arnold Rabson, MD, a geneticist at the University
of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert
Wood Johnson Medical School.
Source: National Cancer Institute, July 5, 2018.
Remembering
Michael Pfreundschuh (1949 – 2018)
Michael Pfreundschuh, MD, one of the leading experts in the field of lymphoma,
passed away on March 5, 2018. He was 68.
Raised in Germany, Dr. Pfreundschuh graduated from Heidelberg University in
1975. He completed his clinical fellowship at the Memorial Hospital and a research
fellowship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He returned
to Germany as an assistant professor at Hannover Medical School in 1984 and then
became an associate professor at Cologne University.
Michael
Pfreundschuh, MD
Dr. Pfreundschuh was elected director of the department of internal medicine
at Saarland University Medical School in 1991. He later became a founding member
and chairman of the German High Grade Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Study Group, as well as a founding
member of the Academy of Cancer Immunology.
He received multiple awards in recognition for his work in hematology and oncology, including the
William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology in 2000 and the
Warner Award for Cancer Research in 2004.
Source: LymphomaHub, March 8, 2018.
ASHClinicalNews.org
Catherine Bollard Appointed
Associate Director of GW Cancer
Center’s Translational Research and
Innovation Program
The George Washington University
(GW) Cancer Center has named
Catherine Bollard, MD, associate
center director for translational
research and innovation. In this role,
she will assist in developing a clinical
program focused on bringing new
Catherine Bollard, MD
cellular therapies and technologies to
the adult population treated at the
GW Cancer Center in Washington, DC.
In addition to this new appointment, Dr. Bollard
will continue to serve as director of the Center for
Cancer and Immunology Research at the Children’s
Research Institute, part of Children’s National Health
System, where she is also a member of the Division
of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Additionally,
she is a professor of pediatrics and microbiology, im-
munology, and tropical medicine at the GW School of
Medicine and Health Sciences.
Dr. Bollard is an expert in immunotherapy and
immunology, and is the immediate past president of
the International Society of Cellular Therapy. She also
is a member of the Lymphoma Steering Committee
at the NCI and the Cellular Tissue and Gene Therapies
Advisory Committee at the U.S. Food and Drug Admin-
istration, and an associate editor for Blood, the journal
of the American Society of Hematology.
Source: GW Cancer Center press release, June 19, 2018.
Fred Hutch Scientists Receive $20
Million for Leukemia Projects
The NCI awarded researchers at Fred Hutchinson
Cancer