October 26, 2011

Jeffrey A. Gottlieb Memorial Award - 1977

Dr. Jeffrey A. Gottlieb was an affectionate and sympathetic man. His patients, friends and family were touched by his tenderness. His students and colleagues were inspired by his zest for scientific achievement.

Dr. Gottlieb was an international leader in the field of chemotherapy. After joining M.D. Anderson in 1970, he developed the clinical use of two important anti-tumor drugs, adriamycin and bleomycin. By incorporating these drugs with conventional drugs, Dr. Gottlieb developed combination chemotherapy regimens that provide effective treatment, especially for bone and soft tissue sarcomas. These treatments, used throughout the world, also are prescribed for cancers of the breast, head and neck, thyroid, malignant melanomas and other malignancies.

Dr. Gottlieb determined adriamycin's toxic effects on the heart and designed a scheme of therapy which could prevent this toxicity. His studies of other chemotherapeutic agents significantly contributed to the world's knowledge about this specialty while improving the efficiency of drug trials.

In a period of five years, Dr. Gottlieb authored or co-authored 77 publications; he was working on 15 others at his death. He prepared 49 abstracts for medical societies throughout the world and delivered 34 papers to scientific gatherings.

While exerting these prodigious clinical research efforts, Dr. Gottlieb was fighting his own battle against systemic cancer. His indomitable spirit to the last hour of his life was an inspiration to his colleagues.

Dr. Gottlieb was Chief of the Chemotherapy Service, Department of Developmental Therapeutics, and Associate Professor of Medicine at M.D. Anderson. He also served as the Executive Secretary for the Southwest Oncology Group, as a member of advisory committees for the National Large Bowel Cancer Project, the National Mycosis Fungoides Cooperative Study Group and many other associations and scientific societies. He was listed in Who's Who in Texas and Who's Who in the Southwest.

His loving wife, Margery, and two children, Elizabeth Anne and Keith Andrew, have said that "this award involves the entire family because M.D. Anderson means so much to us, as it did to Dr. Gottlieb."

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