Hagop kantarjian biography definition

Jacquelyn Cobb: Dr. Kantarjian, congratulations on winning the Karnofsky Award! Hagop Kantarjian: Thank you very much. If you could take us way back and talk about what first drew you to the field of medicine and to oncology, specifically as a medical student in Beirut. HK: In the s, cancer was a big thing. Many people were dying from cancer, and it was probably the hagop kantarjian biography definition or the vision of many of the children to be the people who could cure cancer.

It was thought of as one entity. Then as I got close to the university time, I decided that I wanted to be a cancer expert. These were the three modalities of cancer therapy when I started my training in I know that you did a semester there—is that correct? HK: InI was a third year medical student, and we had the option to take two months of electives outside the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

So, I took the opportunity and joined the two months of elective from the third and fourth year, and came to MD Anderson. In those days, the two most well known institutions in cancer research were MD Anderson and Sloan Kettering, and I applied to both. Freireichwho is one of the most wonderful cancer and leukemia experts in the world, immediately responded and welcomed me.

I came, actually, on Thanksgiving day. I ended up in Houston, and I had to wait for four days because this was Thanksgiving long weekend. I stayed in a hotel for four days waiting for MD Anderson to reopen. I remember I walked. But this is how I ended up here for the next four months. This is when I realized what a wonderful cancer research paradise this was, because we are trained at the American University of Beirut and in many academic centers to simply assimilate and absorb knowledge.

And here was the place where there were about 50 people whom I used to read about. I used to read their papers and research in those days in Cancerwhich was the most popular cancer journal. And yet at that time, I was sitting in the same room with these people who were not absorbing knowledge, but innovating on a daily basis and creating new knowledge that could help cancer research.

There were so many big names but the most important ones, at least in my view, were doctors Emil J FreireichMichael KeatingKenneth B. McCredieJordan Guttermanand many, many more of these wonderful innovators that made a big impact on cancer research. I came back in July,did my two years of fellowship, and then I chose to become a leukemia doctor.

In retrospect, I think this is the only specialty that I would have loved as much as I love it today. By luck, I ended up, through just admiring Dr. Freireich, to choose leukemia research. And it turned out to be the best decision in my life. HK: Because over four decades, we ended up changing the course of the leukemias from being mostly incurable to mostly curable.

If you think about it, in the two most common chronic leukemias, chronic myeloid, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, were incurable. Today, chronic myeloid leukemia is functionally curable with pills. The Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor, the first one being discovered by Dr. Brian Druker. First one, imatinib, was discovered by Dr. Brian Druker, and then there were so many others.

So, these two leukemias, the chronic leukemias, are now functionally and molecularly curable. This is why I consider that choosing leukemia was the best decision in my life, because within the span of one life professional time we were able to change the full course of all the leukemias from mostly incurable to mostly curable. HK: Right. HK: When Dr.

Freireich died inI wrote several obituaries about his life, which is an amazing life. Freireich was born in poverty in Chicago, and he struggled, but he ultimately ended up in medical school. He was a visionary person and also a person who always thinks outside the box and always thinks very unconventionally. So, when he moved to the NIH he had many difficulties with the leadership because he was coming up with ideas that were not in line hagop kantarjian biography definition the traditional thinking.

So, his first thought was that platelets, if we isolate them and give them to patients with leukemia who were dying from bleeding complications, could help that. So, he had to demonstrate this, giving fresh blood to patients with leukemia and low platelet counts. And when he showed in a randomized trial, actually, of fresh blood versus stored blood, that the fresh blood containing the effective platelets which are stopping the bleeding—people did not believe him.

They thought that he was lying. Then he moved on to develop what we now call the apheresis machine. He partnered with IBM to create the machines that separate the platelets from the red cells, from the white cells. And this is how he started the research on platelet transfusions, and this is how the apheresis machines that we have today were the product of his imagination.

Now every hospital has apheresis machines that separates platelets, gives them to patients, and separates the blood components. And also the apheresis machines are used today to collect stem cells for the purpose of peripheral stem cell transplantation. The other big innovation was his use of combination chemotherapy. So, in those days, in childhood ALL, there were four chemotherapy drugs developed over two decades that were of use.

One was prednisone or steroids, then 6-mercaptopurine and methotrexate and vincristine. Freireich had the audacity to say, rather than giving them each as a single treatment, we should combine them together.

Hagop kantarjian biography definition: Dr Hagop Kantarjian is a.

So, when Freireich started treating patients with childhood ALL, this was heretic. And once he started doing those therapies and moved to the combination, people thought that this was crazy and that he was a criminal, because why should you waste all your important bullets, and at one time, rather than sequence them to prolong the survival? So, this was, in those days, a highly controversial and innovative idea, and this is how he showed that childhood ALL could be cured.

This was the second cancer that could be cured. The first one was choriocarcinomas using methotrexate. But the second cancer that was highly curable was the result of Dr. That must have felt so lucky to be studying under him. You mentioned he thought outside of the box and he was willing to challenge the norms of the time. Did you inherit that type of thinking as well?

HK: When I came inI had changed a little bit from, because of my experience in So, I started thinking that really creation of knowledge is more important than absorption of knowledge. And I watched Dr. Freireich during my fellowship. Freireich was a very outspoken person, and he moved things and made progress sometimes through confrontation. He just wanted you to think about things and see if you can find alternative ways to the traditional approach.

So, this was his way of challenging people to think differently and to change their minds. That is so interesting. So, you touched on this quite a bit, but I want to give you an opportunity to speak more on it—what did the leukemia field look like when you were a young investigator? I know you mentioned that nearly all leukemias were incurable.

Hagop kantarjian biography definition: Dr. Kantarjian is professor and chair

HK: No, I think in and inmost of the leukemias were incurable. So, we divide them into the chronic leukemias: Chronic myeloid and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. In those days, the average survival in these two chronic leukemias was two to three years and we had very few treatments like busulfan in chronic myeloid leukemia and some steroids—cyclophosphamide and chlorambucil in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Today, chronic myeloid leukemia is highly curable with the Bcr-Abl kinase inhibitors functionally and molecularly. And patients with CML live their normal life. And now, even though chronic lymphocytic leukemia is still quoted as being incurable in the cancer and medical textbooks, I think we have the tools to cure chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

I was wondering if you wanted to share one or two that were the most exciting to you, or the ones that made you the most proud. HK: So, first, it is not my list of accomplishments, because the accomplishments are so many that it is impossible for these to be accomplished by an individual. The accomplishments are the results of a very large group of leukemia experts that have been at MD Anderson since Freireich came to MD Anderson inhe established the Department of Developmental Therapeutics, which was one of the first and largest departments solely dedicated to cancer research.

Then inthe Department of Developmental Therapeutics split into about 12 or 14 specialty departments. One of them was leukemia. Now, today, the department has about 40 to 50 leukemia experts, and most of them stay at MD Anderson and continue to do leukemia research.

Hagop kantarjian biography definition: Lebanese American hematologist.

And this is why—because we have a large body of highly trained people in a very rare leukemia, and because we inherited the mentality given to us by the first generation of Freireich, McCredie, Keating, and others—we were able to do so much research and to innovate and publish on it. The progress is the product of many, many leukemia experts at MD Anderson, as well as leukemia experts in the United States and in the world.

In commenting on Kantarjian's prodigious success and productivity, his mentor—also a giant in cancer research—Emil J. Freireich, noted his mentee's photographic, encyclopedic memory. Then he assembles the proper team for the project and keeps that team running efficiently—all while managing half a dozen other research teams and running his department.

It's an incredible talent, and it makes him more productive than any traditional researcher could ever be. Burchenal Memorial Awardthe lifetime achievement award for dedication to research and clinical practice from Castle Connollyand several awards from University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, including the first Emil J. For various questions, please try contacting us via social media first!

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