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Cancer Pioneer Folkman Dead

Revolutionized treatment by cutting off blood supply to tumors

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 16, 2008 7:42 AM CST
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(Newser) – Cancer researcher Judah Folkman, whose insights and tenacity spawned a whole new branch of oncology, died Monday at age 74, the Boston Globe reports. Folkman pioneered the notion that cancer tumors could be halted if their blood supply was cut off; he persevered despite decades of skepticism in the field and research setbacks. The work led to the creation of several successful drugs, most notably Avastin, and there are many more in the pipeline.

"If your idea succeeds, everybody says you're persistent," Folkman liked to joke. "If it doesn't succeed, you're stubborn." After graduating from Harvard Medical School and serving in the Navy, the free-thinking and often controversial Folkman spent most of his career at Children's Hospital in Boston, where in later years he mentored a new generation of researchers. “The controversies are minor,” said a longtime colleague. “The point is, he made the field.”

OVIEDO, SPAIN: US doctor Judah Folkman (L) receives the Technical and Scientific Research Prince of Asturias Award from Spain's Prince of Asturias Felipe de Borbon (R), 22 October 2004, in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo.(RAFA RIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)
OVIEDO, SPAIN: US doctor Judah Folkman (L) receives the Technical and Scientific Research Prince of Asturias Award from Spain's Prince of Asturias Felipe de Borbon (R), 22 October 2004, in the northern...   (Getty Images)
ROME, ITALY: US doctor Prof Judah Folkman (R) of the Harvard University Medical School shakes hands with Italian President Carlo Azegli Ciampi as Iacopo Vittorelli (C), president of the Italian Association for Cancer Research, looks on in Rome's presidential palace 07 November 1999. Folkman was honored with a top Italian...
ROME, ITALY: US doctor Prof Judah Folkman (R) of the Harvard University Medical School shakes hands with Italian President Carlo Azegli Ciampi as Iacopo Vittorelli (C), president of the Italian Association...   (Getty Images)
Cancer research pioneer Judah Folkman has died at the age of 74.
Cancer research pioneer Judah Folkman has died at the age of 74.   (anatomy.org)
Judah Folkman, the Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery and Professor of Anatomy and Cellular Biology at Harvard Medical School, poses in his lab in Cambridge, Mass., in this file photo taken Oct. 7, 1999. Folkman, a groundbreaking cancer researcher whose work cured the disease in mice and gave hope for...
Judah Folkman, the Andrus Professor of Pediatric Surgery and Professor of Anatomy and Cellular Biology at Harvard Medical School, poses in his lab in Cambridge, Mass., in this file photo taken Oct. 7,...   (Associated Press)
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Father of groundbreaking cancer therapy dies
Scientific American

Folkman's drugs cured cancer in mice
New York Times

 
cancer • Harvard Medical School • Boston • obituary • cancer research • tumors • blood vessels • Judah Folkman

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