Dr. Frei helped Edward Kennedy Jr. survive osteosarcoma.
Dr. Emil Frei III, 89; former Dana-Farber director pioneered combining chemotherapy treatments for cancer
By Bryan Marquard
/ Globe Staff /
May 2, 2013
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In the late 1950s and early ’60s, Dr. Emil Frei III joined with colleagues at the National Cancer Institute to pioneer combining different kinds of chemotherapy to treat children with acute lymphocytic leukemia.
At a time when the diagnosis was a death sentence for most children, the experimental treatments he and his colleagues devised cured many patients. Their research in subsequent years led to more effective treatments for other forms of cancer in children and adults.
Dr. Frei, who formerly was physician-in-chief and director of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, died Tuesday at 89.
He “was one of a handful of physicians who developed combination chemotherapy for cancer and produced the first cures of childhood leukemia,” said Dr. David Nathan, a former president of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Full story for BostonGlobe.com subscribers.
Bryan Marquard can be reached at bmarquard@globe.com.
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