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The Donald Pinkel Archive: Remembering a “Cancer Cowboy,” civil rights advocate, and groundbreaking pediatric oncologist

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Donald Pinkel, the founding medical director of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, died March 9. He was 95. An obituary by Tim Wendel, lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, who interviewed Pinkel for his book Cancer Crossings, appears here. An obituary by Mary Pinkel, Donald Pinkel’s daughter, appears here. 

Donald Pinkel in Cancer Crossings

The following is an excerpt from Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors, and the Quest for a Cure to Childhood Leukemia by Tim Wendel.

Professions have different ways of getting the word out, forming a trail of record. Not long ago, it was letters and even journals. Today, of course, it is email and even Twitter.

For the doctors at St. Jude in Memphis, Roswell Park in Buffalo and elsewhere, the so-called “Cancer Cowboys,” what often carried the most weight was the list of references, scientific papers and articles that appear in such publications as The Lancet, Health Affairs and the New England Journal of Medicine. Here is where the victories and next steps, the triumphs and breakthroughs, are duly recorded. 

Source: St. Jude Children’s Hospital

The following interview notes were created by Tim Wendel, lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, in the process of writing his book, Cancer Crossings. 

Wendel conducted several interviews with members of the ALGB, or Acute Leukemia Group B, including Donald Pinkel, his brother’s doctor Lucius Sinks, Jerry Yates, James Holland, Emil “Tom” Frei, and Emil J Freireich. Considered “cancer cowboys” of the time, this group of doctors sought to treat and cure childhood leukemia, the disease that Wendel’s brother died of, at a time when the survival rate was about 10%. 

Wendel is a member of the Cancer History Project editorial board.

An interview with Pinkel’s daughter, Mary Pinkel, about her father’s life and career is included as well.

Quote of the week

Well, lots of people thought we were nuts. And when you look back at what we had to overcome, not only in Memphis, but at other hospitals, like Roswell Park, perhaps we were crazy. Maybe we had to be.

Donald Pinkel

St. Jude and Roswell Park remember Pinkel  

Donald P. Pinkel, MD, the founding medical director of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, died Wednesday, March 9, at the age of 95. A giant in the field of oncology, Pinkel served St. Jude from 1961 to 1973 and proved to the world that childhood cancer was a curable disease. 

At St. Jude, Pinkel made medical history by creating an effective therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a disease once considered almost universally fatal. 

Arriving at St. Jude in 1961—a year before the hospital opened—Pinkel began recruiting researchers and clinicians who shared his belief that cures were possible—a conviction met by incredulity from many in the scientific and medical community. During his 12-year tenure, Pinkel forged a collaborative culture and established an enduring medical model that would change the course of pediatric cancer treatment worldwide.

“Dr. Pinkel dared to dream big,” said St. Jude President and CEO James R. Downing, MD, who holds the Donald Pinkel Endowed Chair of Pediatric Cancer Treatment. “We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to him. It’s because of what he accomplished, because of his leadership, because of the people he recruited to St. Jude, that we exist today.” 

The world lost one of the true pioneers of cancer treatment last week with the death of Donald Pinkel, MD, at age 95.

Dr. Pinkel—the founding director of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Pediatric Oncology program, who was recruited in 1961 to become the first director of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee—developed the combination treatment regimen that changed the most common cancer in children, acute lymphocytic leukemia, from a highly fatal disease to a cancer that almost every affected child now survives.

We reproduce here an article that appeared in Roswell Park’s “RPCI Alumni News” magazine in late 2010, based on an interview with Dr. Pinkel, who by then was retired and living with his family in California.

We proudly republish this article to celebrate Dr. Pinkel’s incredible legacy—for the benefit of those who knew him well as well as those not aware of his outsized influence on the care of kids with cancer.

Highlights from the Pinkel archive

The documents within The Donald Pinkel Archive include speeches, personal letters, editorials, photographs, video archives, and celebrations of his life’s work. This is a growing archive, with additional articles contributed by historians, Pinkel’s institutions, and his family. 

Mary Pinkel interviewed her father, Dr. Donald Pinkel, a pioneer in the field of childhood cancer, in November 2008. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. 

Donald Pinkel’s landmark paper, “Drug Dosage and Remission Duration in Childhood Lymphocytic Leukemia,” was rejected in 1970 by the Journal of Pediatrics. However, in a personal letter, Emil Frei lauds it as “an extremely important article.” Both letters are reproduced here and available for download.

Photos of Donald Pinkel, contributed to the Cancer History Project by his family.

A brief documentary about Dr. Donald Pinkel, pediatric cancer pioneer and founding medical director of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee. Video courtesy of St. Jude.

Listen to the Cancer History Project podcast, featuring Tim Wendel

The most recent episode of the Cancer History Project podcast features Tim Wendel, lecturer at Johns Hopkins University and author of Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors, and the Quest for a Cure to Childhood Leukemia. 

“These doctors were the ones who dared to take it on,” Wendel said. “In doing so, they came up with many of the things that we just so much take for granted today when it comes to cancer research and cancer care.”

A transcript of the interview with Wendel appears here. Listen to the podcast here. 

This column features the latest posts to the Cancer History Project by our growing list of contributors. 

The Cancer History Project is a free, web-based, collaborative resource intended to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act and designed to continue in perpetuity. The objective is to assemble a robust collection of historical documents and make them freely available. 

Access to the Cancer History Project is open to the public at CancerHistoryProject.com. You can also follow us on Twitter at @CancerHistProj, or follow our podcast.

Is your institution a contributor to the Cancer History Project? Eligible institutions include cancer centers, advocacy groups, professional societies, pharmaceutical companies, and key organizations in oncology. 

To apply to become a contributor, please contact admin@cancerhistoryproject.com.

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