In 1992, after a lengthy national search, Martin Abeloff, M.D., was selected as the second director of the Kimmel Cancer Center. During his 15-year tenure as Cancer Center director, Abeloff doubled the size of the center’s faculty and increased research funding sixfold. He expanded the footprint of the Center to include nearly 1 million square feet of treatment and research space.

However, in 1961, when he entered the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Abeloff said he had no intention of staying beyond medical school. An introduction by school of medicine Dean Julius Krevans to then-Cancer Center Director Albert Owens and the announcement of plans for a Cancer Center, led him to return in 1972 as an oncology fellow.

It was an exciting time in the fledgling field, with Johns Hopkins on the forefront. Abeloff believed it was a place that could make a difference in the management of cancer.

Abeloff also recalls it as an uncertain time. Mystery surrounded the disease. No one knew what caused it, and often patients seemed to go from healthy to sick to dead in short order.

“There was an urgency about the disease that demanded a merging of laboratory and clinic,” said Abeloff.

Recognition of the new specialty of oncology was just beginning. There were a few surgeons treating patients with chemotherapy, but the medical oncology clinic was brand new.

As they awaited construction of the Cancer Center, Abeloff and other doctors who had agreed to specialize in cancer treatment saw patients in a clinic in the Carnegie Building. Abeloff nicknamed it the “Under the Door Clinic” because as he sat reviewing notes related to a new patient he was about to see, a note would often be passed under the door. The contents of the notes were always similar. They told of a loved one — father, mother, sister or brother — wo was unaware of his or her cancer and warning Abeloff not to reveal the diagnosis to the patient.

Of course, Abeloff could not treat patients without being honest with them, and more often than not, he found they already knew, and saying it out loud freed them to talk openly.

ABELOFF

“Many patients felt guilty, as if it was their fault they had cancer,” Abeloff said. “This blaming-the-patient mentality was common at the time and added to the stigma of the disease.”

He saw getting beyond this stigmatization of the disease as one of the most important early advances. Abeloff believed it led to the forceful and thoughtful patient activism that raised public awareness.

Abeloff’s interest in oncology was inspired, in part, by his mother’s battle with breast cancer in the 1950s, when standard treatment was an operation known as a radical mastectomy. This entailed removing the entire breast, the underlying muscle, and substantial tissue from the armpit. He recalled observing her struggle in pain to regain mobility of her arm.

As he became one of the world’s leading breast cancer experts, Abeloff’s care of the patient rather than the disease inspired the direction of clinical care.

His list of accomplishments is impressive. He was chief of medical oncology and developed the Cancer Center’s breast cancer program. He headed the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the world’s leading organization of clinical oncologists, chaired the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s cancer drug advisory board, and was a member of the National Cancer Institute advisory board. He pushed for clinical trials legislation that led to insurance coverage of experimental cancer therapies.

Like his predecessor, Albert Owens, he recruited many talented cancer clinicians and scientists to the Cancer Center and oversaw the construction of an expanded Cancer Center, including the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg building, the clinical hub of the Cancer Center, and two cancer research buildings — the Bunting Blaustein Cancer Research Building and the David H. Koch Cancer Research Building. In 2002, he also secured the historic $150 million gift from Sidney Kimmel, leading to the renaming of the Center to the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

Under his leadership, the Center’s Art of Healing Program was established, boasting a collection of museum-quality artwork on display in the Weinberg Building and a concert-hall quality music program.

“You simply can’t treat cancer without paying attention to the psychological and social aspects of the disease,” he said.

Abeloff was key to expanding the Cancer Center’s research focus to include solid tumors, including breast, lung and colon cancers. In those days, there were no cancer-specific specialists. The Cancer Center’s doctors saw all patients.

Abeloff’s first clinical research was in small cell lung cancer. He began a collaboration with young investigators David Ettinger and Stephen Baylin.

When he became chief of medical oncology and later when he became center director, Abeloff began to form multispecialty teams to address cancer. He continued the tradition of bench-to-bedside research that Owens initiated.

“The real gains are made when we take laboratory findings and use them to improve the treatment and life of patients with cancer. This is an area where our scientists have excelled. I don’t think any institution in the world has an edge on us,” said Abeloff.

Abeloff, who died in 2007 from leukemia, is remembered by his colleagues and employees for his kindness and humility. Late in his tenure as Cancer Center director, he credited the Cancer Center’s growth and advances against cancer to the faculty and staff, calling himself lucky to work among individuals whose intellect and values made coming to work an absolute joy.

Abeloff worked to make sure research against cancer was shared with clinicians and scientists around the world. He was co-editor-in-chief of the journal Oncology and founding editor-in-chief of Oncology News International. In 2007, the other co-editor, James Armitage, described Abeloff as the “physician everyone wanted to be.”

Abeloff considered patient care to be the most satisfying aspect of his long and impressive career. He said when he heard a patient with brain cancer tell him that the Kimmel Cancer Center was the only place that gave him any hope, or another patient say that our doctors fixed the unfixable, he knew he knew he had set the right course as director.