Donald Pinkel, who helped develop a curative therapy for acute lymphocytic leukemia, has passed away at 95. After embarking on a career in pediatric medicine in the 1950s, Pinkel became interested in helping children afflicted with leukemia. At the time, the disease was considered a death sentence. Beginning in the early 1960s, while working at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Pinkel began exploring an approach to combining chemotherapeutic agents to combat leukemia. In 1972, Pinkel was honored with a Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award for his work. The protocol that Pinkel developed is still in use today, with a five-year survival rate of 94 percent.
