Por La Salud
Dr. Clifford A. Hudis,
President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
Dr. Sandra M. Swain,
Chair, Special Awards Selection Committee
Dear Members of ASCO
Ladies and Gentleman:
It is a great honor to receive this important Award from the most recognized Oncological Society in the World.
Please let me tell you how in 1961 I initiated my training in Medical Oncology (53 years ago). I remember the small and modest hospital in San Antonio Texas, the “Robert B Green Hospital”. When I finished my third year residence in Internal Medicine, I had the opportunity to meet a young Doctor, William L.Wilson, who was a member of the “Central Oncology Group”. The headquarters of this COG were in Madison, Wisconsin, at that time, and it was one of the very few groups of Clinical Oncology involved in doing a phase I and phase II for new antineoplastic drugs.
Well, Bill Wilson invited me to join him to work doing Clinical investigation with new drugs, one of them was the Hexametilmelamine, and thanks to the results in the phase I studies in more than one hundred patients with advanced lung, ovarian and other cancers I had the opportunity in 1964 to meet Dr. Harry F. Bisel. He was the chief of the new clinical oncology department at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, and he invited me to collaborate in helping him with all the protocols of new drugs for his group. Bisel gave me the title of “Research Assistant”, as there was not an official program of training, so I made my own program of rotations in different departments. I spent two years with him.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology during this time was born, Bill Wilson and Harry were two of the seven founders of ASCO and Harry F. Bisel was the first President.
So, I would like to dedicate this “Distinguished Achievement Award” in memory of Bill Wilson and Harry Bisel.
Then, after the Mayo Clinic, in 1967 I went to Mexico City (47 years ago). At first it was not easy for me to convince the surgeons and radiotherapist that the chemotherapy had a role in the management of patients with cancer. But very soon I had the opportunity to treat patients with massive pulmonary metastasis of uterine coriocarcinoma (trophoblastic malignant disease), obtaining great results with complete responses utilizing methotrexate and actinomycin D (several patients were cured).
By 1970 we were the first in Mexico and Latin America and perhaps in many other countries, to use primary chemotherapy with 5 fluorouracil, intravenous in bolus administration followed by radiotherapy in patients with inflammatory breast cancer. Again we had some patients with complete clinical responses; others tumors were treated as well with good results, such as breast, cervix, ovary, G.I.
By this time some of the surgeons and radiotherapist started believing in our work and began sending us their patients for chemotherapy. This was the beginning of cancer chemotherapy in Mexico in the seventies (70´s).
All along ASCO has been playing a great role in our Latin American countries. In Mexico, for instance, since 1968 ASCO has been participating in a great number of congress, symposiums, courses, etc. I remember having professors from all around the world with the recommendations of the ASCO members. To mention some, since my early years in Mexico, I have invited many well-known oncologists, such as: Harry F. Bisel, Bill Wilson, Fred Ansfield, James Holland, Emil Frei, Emil Freireich, Charles Moertel, Charles Coltman, Umberto Veronesi, Irwin Krakoff, Gianni Bonadonna, Norman Jaffe, Paul Carbone, Carlos Perez, Gabriel Hortobagyi, David Kayat, Jose Baselga, Sandra Swain, Larry Einhorn. Chandra Belani, Paul Bunn, David Gandara, Vicente Valero, Antonio Buzaid, Eduardo Cazap, Carlos Barrios, etc. A good number of agreements or commitments with American, Canadian, Latin American and European cancer centers were reached during these visits. So, as you can see, ASCO has played a tremendous role in the development of cancer research in Mexico, something that personally I want to appreciate.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to my family, ALL OF MY alumni, which they are all over Mexico and Latin America, and mainly in Central America. To my guests tonight, Dr. Abelardo Meneses, director of the Cancer Institute in Mexico, Vicente Valero, from the MD Anderson, we are from the same town and University in Nuevo Leon, in Monterrey, and my dear best friend Paula Juarez. And to my good friend Sandra Swain, thank you very very much.
Jaime de la Garza
