How ‘Living Medicine’ Came to Be: Fred Appelbaum on The Long Run

Today’s guest is Fred Appelbaum.

Fred is a physician, scientist, and administrator. He’s an executive vice president at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.

He’s also the author of a new book, “Living Medicine: Don Thomas, Marrow Transplantation and the Cell Therapy Revolution” published by Mayo Clinic Press. It’s excellent.

Fred knows a lot of this story from firsthand experience.

He has spent his career conducting research and treating patients with leukemias, lymphomas, and other cancers of the blood. He’s a pioneer in the field of bone marrow transplantation and was the lead author of a 1978 paper in the journal Blood that heralded the first successful engraftment of autologous bone marrow in patients with malignant lymphoma.

Fred Appelbaum

One of Fred’s key influences was E. Donnall Thomas. Don Thomas won the Nobel Prize in 1990 for the discoveries that paved the way for bone marrow transplantation to become a common, and lifesaving procedure, for people with blood malignancies and more. Thomas died in 2012.

There’s a story to tell here about Don Thomas.

In this conversation, Fred discusses the book, the researching and writing, and a few things he learned.

Now, please join me and Fred Appelbaum on The Long Run.