Segment 03: New Research in the Department of Developmental Therapeutics

Abstract

Dr. Bodey begins this segment by recalling that Developmental Therapeutics was a unique place devoted to research on the diagnosis and treatment of leukemia patients. He comments on the role of pharmaceutical companies such as the Beecham Group and Pfizer in providing institutions with antiobiotics for testing. He studied the effect of carbenicillin on pseudomonas (a gram negative bacteria) resulting in a drop in mortality from seventy or eighty percent to twenty percent. He notes other research project, his interest in chemo therapy, and the role of the NCI in supporting work on antibiotics.

Dr. Bodey then explains that he had very good relationships with the drug companies. Only on rare occasions did he have to refuse a drug company’s request to do or say something because it seemed unethical. He speculates on why the situation has changed since the sixties.

Dr. Bodey then quickly sketches his work on antibiotic combinations, explaining why pairing drugs can work. He covers the problem of resistance and how drug resistances can be specific to an institution. Dr. Bodey next notes a big problem for leukemia patients: they will start out with bacterial infections and then get fungal infections, with candida representing the biggest problem. He explains hepatosplenic candidiasis.

Dr. Bodey tells an anecdote from his residency in Seattle that shows his gift for treating infections. He was on rounds and “somehow was attuned to the fact” that a patient had candida in the liver and spleen. Dr. Bodey gave the patient an antifungal drug leading to recovery.

Dr. Bodey notes that he may have investigated the first pairing of two beta-lactam drugs, cefoperazone plus aztreonam. He notes that he studied the prophylactic use of drugs, explaining that patient at risk would often die of infection before receiving their full course of treatment for leukemia.