A Living Medicine
Don Thomas, Marrow Transplantation, and the Cell Therapy Revolution
A sweeping biography of the visionary behind bone marrow transplantation and the story of the diseases cured by Don Thomas's discovery.
In the last half of the twentieth century, Thomas himself discovered a cure for every marrow-based disease—like leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle-cell anemia—forever changing treatment for some of the deadliest illnesses. His feats were extraordinary, earning him a Nobel Prize, and the cascade of treatments he inspired have reshaped and will continue to reshape the practice of clinical medicine. Yet no one has ever written Thomas’s courageous story. Dr. Frederick R. Appelbaum, a member of Thomas’s research team, does so for the first time in Living Medicine: Don Thomas, Marrow Transplantation, and the Cell Therapy Revolution.
Bone marrow transplantation has now saved over a million lives, but when Thomas first had the idea, he was met with disbelief by the scientific community. Appelbaum, informed by decades in the field and personal connection with Thomas, tells us the secrets to Thomas’s success: his unique characteristics, how he created an effective team of researchers, and how he overcame the technical obstacles of marrow transplantation. Appelbaum tells a bigger story, too, of the scientific and societal implications of this achievement, which are critical for scientific and lay readers alike so that we all might be better informed of how far our medical progress has come and will go.
Fred Appelbaum, M.D., is the Metcalfe Family Professor at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Center. His work has ranged from studying basic molecular abnormalities of the disease to conducting national and international studies of its treatment. He's the past chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Advisors and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association of Cancer Research, and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He is currently on the scientific advisory boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering (which he chairs), Johns Hopkins, MD Anderson, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California San Francisco. Appelbaum has authored or co-authored over 800 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and hundreds of chapters, invited reviews, and editorials.
