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Remembering Barry Paw
Barry Paw, MD, PhD, a principal investigator and
pediatric oncologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
and Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood
Disorders Center, died on December 28, 2017, at the age
of 56.
Dr. Paw’s research focused on the developmental
Barry Paw, MD, PhD
biology of red blood cell differentiation. He was part
of a team that used zebrafish as a model to identify
mutations that cause anemia, which led to discoveries
in human blood disorders, including sideroblastic anemia, erythropoietic
protoporphyria, and Diamond-Blackfan anemia.
Dr. Paw received many awards throughout his career, including the
(1961-2017)
William Randolph Hearst Young Investigator Award in 2002, the Basil
O’Connor Scholar Award from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Founda-
tion, and the Young Investigator President’s Award from the Interna-
tional BioIron Society in 2005.
In addition to his impressive work, Dr. Paw is remembered as a dedi-
cated mentor. “He always viewed the development of his mentees as an
essential part of his scientific legacy, perhaps just as important as the
seminal discoveries that he spearheaded,” said Jeffrey Cooney, a former
student of Dr. Paw, who is pursuing an MD/PhD at the University of Texas
at San Antonio.
Source: Brigham and Women’s Hospital news release, January 4, 2018.
Remembering James F. Holland
James F. Holland, MD, a pioneer in developing clini-
cal trial protocols for leukemia treatment, died on
March 22, 2018, at the age of 92. Dr. Holland was a
distinguished professor of neoplastic diseases in the
Department of Medicine at the Tisch Cancer Institute
of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in
James F. Holland, MD
New York.
Dr. Holland joined the National Cancer Institute in
1953, at a time when cancer was largely thought to be
incurable. He began researching clinical trial design and compared continu-
ous or intermittent treatment with methotrexate and 6-mercaptopurine
for acute leukemia. This trial represented the first multicenter study
of chemotherapy for cancer and led to the formation of the Acute
Leukemia Group B (which later became the Cancer and Leukemia Group
B, now part of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology). It also served
as a clinical trial prototype for incorporating eligibility and exclusion
criteria, pre-study testing, a randomization scheme, a central review
of morphology, measures for supportive care, and detailed criteria for
treatment response.
In addition, the trial results laid the groundwork for using combination
chemotherapy to treat and potentially cure about 90 percent of acute
lymphocytic leukemia cases. The multi-drug approach is now used in
countless other diseases, including lymphoma and colorectal, breast,
and lung cancers. Dr. Holland and colleagues also developed the 7+3
treatment regimen (3 daily injections of daunorubicin and 7 days of in-
travenous cytarabine), a schedule that is still a standard to treat acute
myeloid leukemia.
In 1962, Dr. Holland was elected chair of the Cancer and Leukemia
Group B, and, under his leadership, the group expanded its research
scope to include other pediatric neoplasms, metastatic carcinoma in
adults, and adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Dr. Holland served as president of the American Association for
Cancer Research in 1970 and was awarded the Albert Lasker Basic
Medical Research Award in 1972 for his contributions to the concept
and application of combination therapy in the treatment of pediatric
acute leukemia.
Dr. Holland’s wife, Jimmie C. Holland, MD, who was the founder
of the field of psycho-oncology, passed away in December 2017. The
Hollands are survived by six children and many grandchildren.
Source: The Washington Post, January 22, 2018.
Remembering Limin Gao
Limin Gao, MD, PhD
ASHClinicalNews.org
Limin Gao, MD, PhD, an associate member of the
American Society of Hematology, died on January 27,
2018, at the age of 43 from complications related to
cancer. Dr. Gao had just completed her hematology/
oncology training at the Tufts Medical Center and
had signed a contract with Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center when she was diagnosed with advanced
esophageal cancer in the spring of 2017.
Dr. Gao grew up in China and earned her doctoral
(1925-2018)
(1974-2018)
degrees in the U.S., where she also completed her medical residency.
“We were honored to be her coworkers and friends in Boston during
our oncology training,” her colleagues from Tufts Medical Center wrote.
“It is a senseless loss for her future patients who would have benefited
tremendously from her brilliance, compassion, and care.”
Dr. Gao is survived by her husband, Sean (Chuanshen) Gao, who
is completing his residency in New York, and two young children.
Source: GoFundMe, accessed at gofundme.com/limin-the-brave-fighter.
ASH Clinical News
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