Health Care
2014 Leaders in Health Care Awards: Lifetime Achievement
By Gianni Truzzi February 19, 2014
Frederick Appelbaum, M.D.
Executive VP and Deputy Director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Executive Director and
President, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Things have come full circle for Dr. Fred Appelbaum. Thirty-five years after his mentor, the late E. Donnall Thomas, drew him to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, he is helping assure a future for the next generation of faculty.
It was under Thomas that Appelbaum contributed to landmark development of autologous bone marrow transplantation, in which a patients own preserved bone marrow is restored after cell-destroying chemotherapy. Appelbaum was the lead author of the first published report of the successful procedure, for which Thomas was awarded a Nobel Prize, and has since helped an estimated one million people worldwide.
His subsequent research of blood cancers led to the development of an antibody drug to treat acute myeloid leukemia. Later, he helped form the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, where he still serves as president.
Laden with professional honors, Appelbaum is now executive vice president and deputy director of Fred Hutch to help ensure sustained funding to support the researchers who will follow him. Its really gratifying, he says, to watch junior investigators take concepts you started and expand them further than you ever thought possible.