{"entity":{"id":"emil-frei","kind":"person","name":"Emil \"Tom\" Frei III","aka":[],"tldr":"With Emil Freireich he showed that combinations of drugs could cure childhood leukaemia, then extended the idea to Hodgkin lymphoma and to adjuvant treatment after surgery.","summary":"Emil Frei III (1924-2013) arrived at the National Cancer Institute in 1955 and, with Emil Freireich, ran the first randomised trials in leukaemia and the VAMP combination that produced the first cures of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. He argued from bacterial resistance to tuberculosis that cancers should be attacked with several drugs at once, a principle applied at the NCI in the MOPP regimen that made advanced Hodgkin lymphoma curable. He moved to MD Anderson in 1965 and in 1972 became director and physician-in-chief of the Sidney Farber Cancer Center in Boston, later Dana-Farber, where he led work on adjuvant chemotherapy for osteosarcoma and breast cancer and high-dose therapy. He received the Lasker Award in 1972 with Freireich, Pinkel and others for the cure of childhood leukaemia.","asOf":"2026-09-09","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Frei","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Frei"},{"label":"Dana-Farber Cancer Institute","url":"https://www.dana-farber.org/"}],"tags":["hero","pioneer"],"related":[],"cancers":["all-leukemia","hodgkin-lymphoma","osteosarcoma"],"sections":["chemotherapy"],"technologies":["cytotoxic-chemotherapy"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["nci","md-anderson","dana-farber"],"pathways":[],"terms":["neoadjuvant-adjuvant"],"trials":[],"people":["emil-freireich","sidney-farber"],"bottlenecks":["b-combination-space"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Pioneer of combination chemotherapy; long-time physician-in-chief of Dana-Farber","specialisms":["Combination chemotherapy","Acute leukaemia","Hodgkin lymphoma","Adjuvant chemotherapy"],"profiles":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Frei"},{"label":"Dana-Farber Cancer Institute","url":"https://www.dana-farber.org/"}],"papers":[{"title":"The National Cancer Chemotherapy Program","journal":"Science","year":1982,"doi":"10.1126/science.7046055"},{"title":"Bone marrow autotransplantation for solid tumors--prospects.","journal":"Journal of Clinical Oncology","year":1989,"doi":"10.1200/jco.1989.7.4.515"},{"title":"Tumor necrosis factor: still a promising agent.","journal":"Journal of Clinical Oncology","year":1989,"doi":"10.1200/jco.1989.7.3.291"}]},"route":"/people/emil-frei/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"all-leukemia","kind":"cancer","name":"Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia","route":"/cancers/all-leukemia/"},{"id":"hodgkin-lymphoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Hodgkin lymphoma","route":"/cancers/hodgkin-lymphoma/"},{"id":"osteosarcoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Osteosarcoma","route":"/cancers/osteosarcoma/"}],"section":[{"id":"chemotherapy","kind":"section","name":"Chemotherapy","route":"/fronts/chemotherapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"cytotoxic-chemotherapy","kind":"technology","name":"Cytotoxic chemotherapy","route":"/technologies/cytotoxic-chemotherapy/"}],"institution":[{"id":"dana-farber","kind":"institution","name":"Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/dana-farber/"},{"id":"md-anderson","kind":"institution","name":"MD Anderson Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/md-anderson/"},{"id":"nci","kind":"institution","name":"National Cancer Institute (NIH)","route":"/institutions/nci/"}],"term":[{"id":"neoadjuvant-adjuvant","kind":"term","name":"Neoadjuvant / adjuvant / perioperative","route":"/terms/neoadjuvant-adjuvant/"}],"person":[{"id":"donald-pinkel","kind":"person","name":"Donald Pinkel","route":"/people/donald-pinkel/"},{"id":"emil-freireich","kind":"person","name":"Emil J Freireich","route":"/people/emil-freireich/"},{"id":"sidney-farber","kind":"person","name":"Sidney Farber","route":"/people/sidney-farber/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-combination-space","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Too many combinations to test","route":"/bottlenecks/b-combination-space/"}]}}