WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Dr. Judah Folkman, a giant of cancer
research who discovered that tumors generate a network of tiny
blood vessels to nourish themselves, has died at the age of 74,
Harvard Medical School said on Tuesday.
Folkman's work founded an entire branch of cancer research
called anti-angiogenesis therapy. His theory was that if a
tumor could be stopped from growing its own blood supply, it
would wither and die.
The theory helped in the development of such drugs as
Genentech's Avastin and other targeted cancer therapies.
"This is (a) devastating loss to not only our hospital
family, but the world at large," Dr. James Mandell, president
and chief executive officer of Children's Hospital in Boston,
where Folkman was based, said in a letter to staff.
"Dr. Folkman, founder and director of the Vascular Biology
program, was a true visionary and scientific pioneer. Because
of Dr. Folkman's vision, more than 10 new cancer drugs are
currently on the market, and more than 1.2 million patients
worldwide are now receiving anti-angiogenic therapy."
Folkman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1933 and graduated
from Ohio State University in 1953. He earned his medical
degree at Harvard Medical School in 1957 and stayed there for
much of the rest of his career.
Folkman said he came up with his theories while serving in
the U.S. Navy in the early 1960s, at the National Naval Medical
Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
DEFINITIVE PAPER
He published his definitive paper in the New England
Journal of Medicine in 1971. It took nearly a decade for the
scientific community to accept his ideas.
"I was there when he first began to present those ideas and
they were shouted down by very famous people," said Dr. David
Nathan, president emeritus of Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute.
Nathan said Folkman worked patiently and politely to battle
critics of his angiogenesis theories.
"He was kind and he was decent and he was friendly always,
even to his critics," Nathan added in a telephone interview.
"Judah had the most creative mind, ceaselessly creative.
You could not have a conversation with Judah without having him
think of the problem in a different way. He was just bubbling
over with new ideas in many areas," Nathan said.
One of Folkman's interests was the understanding that
people with Down's syndrome are much less likely to have cancer
than the general population. He suggested it might have
something to do with the third copy of chromosome 21 -- the
hallmark and underlying cause of the condition.
"Down syndrome is always considered a tragedy for families.
But on the other hand, they bring this huge clinical clue," "
Folkman told Reuters in an interview published January 2, when
he was asked to comment on some recent research on the subject.
Folkman called back after the story was published,
distraught that families of Down's patients had been calling
him and e-mailing him about the comment. "They thought I meant
that I thought their children's lives were a tragedy," Folkman
said.
"I have been talking to each family and explaining to them
what I meant. We all know that people with Down syndrome can
lead full lives now, and that these children are as much a
blessing as any other child," he said.
No cause of death was given. Folkman was married and had
two daughters and a granddaughter.