Joseph F. Fraumeni, Jr.

Joseph F. Fraumeni, Jr.

Joseph F. Fraumeni, Jr. (Born 1933, Massachusetts) is an American physician and cancer researcher. He received an A.B. from Harvard College, an M.D. from Duke University, and an M.Sc. in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his medical residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and received internal medicine board certification. He then joined the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health as a post-doctoral fellow, becoming founding Chief of the Environmental Epidemiology Branch in 1975, Director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program in 1979, and currently Director of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics since 1995.

One of Dr. Fraumeni's research accomplishments was the identification in 1969 with Dr. Frederick Pei Li of four families with an increased susceptibility to multiple forms of cancer in children and young adults. [1] Tracing these families and 20 others for twenty years[2] led to the characterization of what became known as Li-Fraumeni syndrome and the discovery in 1990 of inherited mutations of the tumor suppressor gene, p53, as the underlying mechanism in most affected families. [3]

Dr. Fraumeni has been recognized by numerous honors and awards for his research into the genetic and environmental determinants of cancer. Among them are the Abraham Lilienfeld Award from the American College of Epidemiology, John Snow Award from the American Public Health Association, James D. Bruce Award from the American College of Physicians, Nathan Davis Award from the American Medical Association, Charles S. Mott Prize (with F.P. Li) from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, Medal of Honor from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association for Cancer Research. Dr. Fraumeni is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the Association of American Physicians. He has over 800 scientific publications, including several books on the causes and prevention of cancer.

See also

References

  1. ^ Li FP, Fraumeni JF, Jr. Soft-tissue sarcomas, breast cancer, and other neoplasms. A familial syndrome? Ann Intern Med 1969:71:747-752.
  2. ^ Li FP, Fraumeni JF, Jr., Mulvihill JJ, et al. A cancer family syndrome in twenty-four kindreds. Cancer Res 1988:48:5358-5362.
  3. ^ Malkin D, Li FP, Strong LC, Fraumeni, JF Jr.,Nelson CE, Kim DH, Kassel J, Gryka MA, Bischoff FZ, Tainsky, MA, Friend SH. Germ line p53 mutations in a familial syndrome of breast cancer, sarcomas, and other neoplasms. Science 1990:250: 1233-1238.