Judah Folkman

Angiogenesis Inhibitor Researcher

Judah Folkman passed away on January 14, 2008, from an apparent heart attack. He was 74 years old.

He died on Monday night in Denver, Colorado. His wife, Paula Folkman, stated that he probably died of a heart attack. He was on his way to a conference in Vancouver, British Columbia and must have died on the way when changing planes.

Dr. Folkman was the originator of angiogenesis research, centering on blood vessel formation (angiogenesis) in cancer. This was one of the most important new cancer ideas to emerge in 50 years. The angiogenesis inhibitors, compounds that block new blood vessels from forming are based on his work.

Here is the Reuters News Release:

Dr. Judah Folkman, U.S. Cancer Pioneer, Dies

WASHINGTON (Reuters) Jan 16 - Dr. Judah Folkman, a giant of cancer research who discovered that tumor growth depends on angiogenesis, has died at the age of 74, Harvard Medical School said on Tuesday.

Dr. Folkman's work founded anti-angiogenesis therapy. His theory was that if the growth of blood vessels feeding the tumor could be stopped, the tumor would wither and die.

The theory lead to the development of drugs such as Avastin (Genentech) and other targeted cancer therapies.

"This is (a) devastating loss to not only our hospital family, but the world at large," Dr. James Mandell, president and chief executive officer of Children's Hospital in Boston, where Dr. Folkman was based, said in a letter to staff.

"Dr. Folkman, founder and director of the Vascular Biology program, was a true visionary and scientific pioneer. Because of Dr. Folkman's vision, more than 10 new cancer drugs are currently on the market, and more than 1.2 million patients worldwide are now receiving anti-angiogenic therapy."

Dr. Folkman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1933 and graduated from Ohio State University in 1953. He earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School in 1957, began his surgical residence at Massachusetts General Hospital, and remained affiliated with Harvard for much of the rest of his
career.

Dr. Folkman said he came up with his theory while serving in the U.S. Navy in the early 1960s, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

He published a definitive paper in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1971, but it took nearly a decade for the scientific community to accept his ideas.

"I was there when he first began to present those ideas and they were shouted down by very famous people," said Dr. David Nathan, president emeritus of Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Nathan said Dr. Folkman worked patiently and politely to battle critics of his angiogenesis theories. "He was kind and he was decent and he was friendly always, even to his critics," Dr. Nathan added in a telephone interview.

"Judah had the most creative mind, ceaselessly creative. You could not have a conversation with Judah without having him think of the problem in a different way. He was just bubbling over with new ideas in many areas," Dr. Nathan said.

One of Dr. Folkman's interests was people with Down's syndrome, who are much less likely to have cancer than the general population. He suggested it might have something to do with trisomy 21.

No cause of death was given. Dr. Folkman was married and had two daughters and a granddaughter.

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Wikipedia article on Jonah Folkman

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