Donald Pinkel is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 medical doctor

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

 who specializes in pediatric

Pediatrics

Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...

 hematology

Hematology

Hematology, also spelled haematology , is the branch of biology physiology, internal medicine, pathology, clinical laboratory work, and pediatrics that is concerned with the study of blood, the blood-forming organs, and blood diseases...

 and oncology

Oncology

Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer...

.
He has made contributions to cures for several forms of childhood cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

, including leukemia

Leukemia

Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

.
He has received many awards and recognitions for his research work, including the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research

Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research

Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award is awarded by the Lasker Foundation for the understanding, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and cure of disease. The award was renamed in 2008 in honor of Michael E. DeBakey...

 in 1972, the Kettering Prize

Kettering Prize

The Kettering Prize was given for the most outstanding recent contribution to the diagnosis or treatment of cancer.This award was named in honor of Charles F. Kettering, inventor, former General Motors Director, and pioneer of the General Motors Research Laboratories.Past winners are:*2005 Angela...

 for cancer research in 1986, and the Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research

Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research

The Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research is an annual award given to physicians who contribute important advances to the field of pediatrics, and is the only existing international pediatric award. The prize was created in 2002 by Irene and Abe Pollin, and funded by the Linda and Kenneth Pollin...

 in 2003.
Pinkel was the first director of St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, serving from 1962 to 1973.
He has also authored or co-authored numerous books, chapters in books, and journal articles.

Director of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Dr. Donald Pinkel served as the first director and CEO of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital from 1962 to 1973 focusing on Acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a form of leukemia, or cancer of the white blood cells characterized by excess lymphoblasts.Malignant, immature white blood cells continuously multiply and are overproduced in the bone marrow. ALL causes damage and death by crowding out normal cells in the bone...

 (ALL), the most frequent cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 in young children, he and his colleagues identified four major obstacles to its cure: drug resistance

Drug resistance

Drug resistance is the reduction in effectiveness of a drug such as an antimicrobial or an antineoplastic in curing a disease or condition. When the drug is not intended to kill or inhibit a pathogen, then the term is equivalent to dosage failure or drug tolerance. More commonly, the term is used...

, drug toxicity, meningeal relapse, and most important, pessimism

Pessimism

Pessimism, from the Latin word pessimus , is a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?"...

.

Dr. Pinkel and his colleagues at St Jude, the patron of the hopeless, instituted a treatment program aimed at permanent cure of ALL. Called "Total Therapy," it was based on all the available relevant laboratory and clinical research and experience. There were four phases: remission induction, remission consolidation or intensification, specific pre-emptive meningeal treatment and continuation chemotherapy for 3 years. Both radiotherapy and instillation of drug directly into spinal fluid were used for meningeal treatment. Eventually a 50% cure rate was achieved in the 1967-68 study V; this cure rate continues for the children in this study 40 years later. This was the first significant cure rate for generalized cancer and for primarily drug treatment of cancer.

This four-phase treatment plan is still used today with numerous modifications. Increases in resources and trained physicians and nurses, better infection control, safer blood transfusion and newer drugs and drug schedules have increased the reported cure rates to 75-85% of treated children with ALL in developed countries. Better use of drugs both systemically and by instillation into the spinal fluid have replaced the need for radiation therapy to pre-empt meningeal relapse in most children with ALL.

Awards

Dr. Donald Pinkel has received numerous recognitions for his contributions to the cure of childhood leukemia and other forms of pediatric cancer. These include international awards: the Lasker Award for Medical Research, the Kettering Prize for Cancer Research and the Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research. The American Cancer Society

American Cancer Society

The American Cancer Society is the "nationwide community-based voluntary health organization" dedicated, in their own words, "to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and...

gave him their Annual Award for Clinical Research and the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society of America the Return of the Child award. In Germany he received the Zimmerman Prize for Cancer Research and in the United Kingdom the Leukemia Society Annual Lectureship and the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health biennial Windermere Lectureship.