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NCI Cancer Bulletin: A Trusted Source for Cancer Research News
NCI Cancer Bulletin: A Trusted Source for Cancer Research News
September 28, 2004 • Volume 1 / Number 37 E-Mail This Document  |  Download PDF  |  Bulletin Archive/Search  |  Subscribe


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NIH Dedicates New Clinical Research Center

Director's Update
Where Cutting-Edge Science Meets Patient Care

Spotlight
Advancing Cancer Care at the Clinical Center

Progress in Cancer Clinical Research
50 Years of Health and Hope

A Conversation with
Drs. Frank Balis and J. Carl Barrett

Notes from Clinical Center Patients Through the Years

Guest Commentary
Cokie Roberts

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In 1953, the Warren Magnuson Clinical Center opens and its first patient, Charles Meredith, is admitted for treatment of prostate cancer. Drs. Emil Frei and Emil Freireich achieve the first cures with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), one of the major malignancies of childhood, with intensive combination therapy. Dr. Vincent DeVita and his NCI colleagues report the first chemotherapeutic cure of Hodgkin's disease, even in its advanced form. Most of the 17 Lasker Awards for research on chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer go to researchers who have worked in the Clinical Center. A special award was presented to Dr. C. Gordon Zubrod, NCI's first clinical director. Progressin Cancer Clinical Research A special virus-leukemia program is initiated under a special appropriation, included in the FY 1965 appropriation. Using large doses of methotrexate, researchers achieve total cure of choriocarcinoma - a rare cancer of the placenta that was, until then, invariably fatal. It is the first successful treatment for malignancy in a human solid tumor. X-rays provide critical information in diagnosing cancer. Wanda S. Chappell, chief nurse in the blood bank, develops a simple but ingenious method for separating platelets from blood plasma, so that platelets can be used in transfusions for leukemia patients and the rest of the blood can be used by others. NCI scientists begin to describe families with histories of co-occurring breast and ovarian cancers. NCI researchers begin to describe cancer clustering in families of children with sarcoma. NCI conducts chemotherapy testing program, circa 1950. 1950 1960 1970 50 Yearsof Health and Hope Most children with ALL can now be treated successfully. NIH scientists treat first cancer patients with human gene therapy. Two patients receive transfusions of cancer-killing cells removed from their own tumors and armed in the lab with a gene capable of producing a potent antitumor toxin: tumor necrosis factor. The Children's Inn opens its doors to pediatric patients and their families, thanks to the vision and hard work of NCI's Dr. Phil Pizzo. NCI researchers demonstrate that adoptively transferred cells can mediate cancer regression in humans, opening the field of adoptive immunotherapy for cancer. The Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center will provide high-tech, high-touch care to patients. NCI announces the results of injecting patients in advanced stages of cancer with interleukin-2 or mixtures of this substance with lymphokine killing cells - a 44 percent response rate in 25 patients treated. The FDA approves AZT, initially used for cancer chemotherapy, as the first antiretroviral drug to be used as a treatment for AIDS. The NCI's pediatric branch hires the Clinical Center's first nurse practitioners. Surgery is often an option for cancer treatment. Identification of p53 as Li-Fraumeni syndrome susceptibility gene. A second bone marrow transplant unit opens to support NCI protocols. Clinical Center adds new space for NCI and NIAID labs that are focused on AIDS research. Groundbreaking ceremonies are held for the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center. 1980 1990 2000

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