Chapter 01: Experiences with Cancer Bring a Young Scientist to MD Anderson

Chapter 01: Experiences with Cancer Bring a Young Scientist to MD Anderson

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Description

In this chapter, Dr. Bowen talks about his personal and professional background, his first exposure to the ravages of cancer, and how he came to know about and eventually work at MD Anderson. He also discusses how his first wife lost her battle with cancer at a young age and beginning his career during what he calls the “golden age of biomedical research.”

Identifier

BowenJM_01_20000327_C01

Publication Date

3-27-2000

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - Educational Path; Personal Background; Professional Path; Inspirations to Practice Science/Medicine; Influences from People and Life Experiences; The Researcher; Joining MD Anderson; Understanding Cancer, the History of Science, Cancer Research; The History of Health Care, Patient Care; Patients; Patients, Treatment, Survivors; Cancer and Disease; Human Stories

Transcript

Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:

My name is Louis Marchiafava, and I am interviewing Dr. James M. Bowen. The interview is being sponsored by M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Today is March 27, 2000.  

Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:

00:43.000 Dr. Bowen, I would like to first begin the interview by obtaining some background information concerning what led up to your employment and your years at M. D. Anderson. I was curious, in reading your background information, are there any other members of your family involved in biochemistry or medical science?

James M. Bowen, PhD:

Well, my late brother, Vaughn, who was a physicist and analytical chemist, spent his entire career with General Electric Medical Systems working on the development and manufacture of medical radiological devices. So, yes, my only sibling, my brother, and I, both spent our careers very close to the medical field -- I in academics, and he in the corporate world. So, yes, our family has been involved in medical research and in the cancer field for all of our adult lives, essentially.

Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:

How far back does that interest go?

James M. Bowen, PhD:

Well, speaking for myself, as I look back on my own coming to M. D. Anderson, it is an interesting story because it is kind of a little small insight into what was happening in the cancer field, and in biomedical science in general during that period of time because I came into my college years really at the beginning of one of the golden ages of biomedical research. I grew up in a small town in north Texas and attended college in Wichita Falls, a college that ultimately became Midwestern State University. My first exposure to cancer, in the sense of having been influenced by it, was in the spring of my senior year in high school. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and looking back at what was available at the time, it was a particularly progressive and rapidly developing form of breast cancer. She had a mastectomy done by a general surgeon in a small town there in Texas, and then spent some weeks in Fort Worth having radiotherapy, but by that time, the cancer was already spreading throughout her body, and she died just 50 weeks to the day after her mastectomy. And I thought at the time, what an awful thing that a woman 38 years old could develop cancer and die in one year, and there didn't seem to be an awful lot that could be done. But like most young people, I was impressionable and I didn't give very much credence to the notion that I could ever personally do anything. It was just one of those kinds of dreams that go through your mind. But as soon as I got to college, I learned, somewhat to the skepticism of the rest of my family, that you could actually make a living as a scientist. You could either teach science or so forth. And I had always had a natural flare for science. And so, I majored in kind of a combination premed and botany curriculum at Midwestern because the faculty were such great mentors there, and one summer, I took my first course in microbiology, and that was it for me. At the time, it really wasn't clear to me that I could make a reasonable living doing microbiology, but I didn't much care. I figured that was what I wanted to do and if I couldn't make a living at it, I would manage somehow -- a typical young person's point of view. And when graduation time came from Midwestern, I sent out, I don't even remember how many letters now, to graduate schools. And sure enough, I received a letter back from a microbiologist named Steven Pilcher, who was professor of microbiology at Oregon State University in Corvalis, Oregon. He was working on influenza virus and had a fellowship that was designed to grow influenza virus and treat the growing virus with a long list of substances that were being synthesized by another graduate student on the same project to try to see if we could find substances that you could ultimately think of, in terms of treating fluid. I accepted this assistantship. I sent my letter off on a Friday. That weekend, I proposed to a young fellow student that I had met and fallen in love with in college. We got married in March and when the end of May came, we took off with all of our worldly goods in my 1949 Ford, and we drove that 2,400 miles to Corvalis, Oregon -- kids were very excited about the adventure, but having no clue as to what was ahead of us. I began my research assistantship in Dr. Pilcher's laboratory, and began taking courses in microbiology. And every course I took convinced me that I had made the right choice. Remembering the situation with my mother, I had long conversations with Dr. Pilcher about whether or not I should think about medical school. And, in those days, the working philosophy was that if you wanted to take care of patients, you went to medical school; if you wanted to do research, you went to graduate school and did a Ph.D., and I opted for a Ph.D. In March of 1956, after my bride and I had arrived at Oregon State in early June of 1955, she began having unusual symptoms, and a trip to the doctor launched a series of x-rays and other tests that culminated in her receiving a diagnosis of a form of cancer called Hodgkin's disease. She had probably had Hodgkin's for a good many months, but it was the first time that the tumor had grown large enough to cause symptoms. Well, once again, in those days, what was available was radiotherapy, and they were beginning to experiment with chemotherapy using substances like nitrogen mustard. And my wife had continuing courses of radiotherapy. She had one course of nitrogen mustard. But about 2-1/2 years after her diagnosis, she died from systemic Hodgkin's disease. As a postscript, it is interesting to note that in the year 2000, Hodgkin's disease is about 90% curable, particularly if you catch it in time, but in those days, there was really no hope of cure.

Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:

How old was she?

James M. Bowen, PhD:

She was 27 when she died. During the period of time that she was ill, I tried to do something about my ignorance about cancer, and I would read in the library and, in those days, not a lot was known. But my major professor, who was also one of my very closest friends, gave me a paper one day and he said, "You know, there is a place in Texas that is doing some really remarkable things. There is a whole institution in Texas that does nothing but treat cancer and do research on cancer. If you have ever thought of going back to your home state, you probably ought to contact those people when you finish school."

Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:

What year was this?

James M. Bowen, PhD:

That year was 1957, approximately. My young wife died in November of 1958, but by an agreement that she and I had always had with each other, I continued. We flew her home to Texas for her last couple of months of life. She died and was buried in her family plot in north Texas. And then I immediately got on the plane and went back to school. I went back to work and finished my Ph.D. There. I finished my Ph.D. In 1961, and when I was preparing to finish up my doctorate, I began writing letters, both for jobs and for potential additional training in a postdoctoral fellowship kind of setting. I wrote mainly to pharmaceutical companies because they were the ones that were doing research on developing drugs to treat virus infections in those days, and because there were so few of us doing it, even as a graduate student, our group was considered something of experts on research on controlling influenza virus. But I read this paper that came out of M. D. Anderson, and I wrote them a letter in addition to writing letters to pharmaceutical companies.

Louis J. Marchiafava, PhD:

Do you remember who you wrote to?

James M. Bowen, PhD:

Yes, I certainly do. I wrote to a gentleman named Felix Haas. Dr. Haas was both the head of a department then, and was a special assistant to Dr. Lee Clark in developing a basic science program. They had received a U.S. Public Health Service training grant for both predoc and postdoc fellows, and they offered me one of these postdoctoral fellowships because one of them had been assigned to a special section within the department of biology, and I will come back to that in just a moment. This was the section of virology and electron microscopy. However, before I received the letter offering me this fellowship, I had signed the contract to go to work for the Sterling Winthrop Corporation in Albany, New York. But when I got the postdoctoral fellowship, I thought, here is an institution that does cancer research, it is in Texas, where I have always wanted to go home again, and they are doing virology. This is an incredible juxtaposition of interest for me. It seems almost providential. So, I wrote to my prospective employer at Sterling Winthrop and said, 'I have an offer for a year of postdoc. Is there any way you could allow me to do this before I report to work in upstate New York?' And so, after some telephone conversations and exchange of letters and assurances that I really would come to work for them after doing my postdoc . . . Because, in those days, virology was blossoming. And if you had training in virology, it was easy to get a job. But, at any rate, they ultimately agreed to let me do a year of postdoc with a fellow named Dr. Leon Dmochowski. And Dr. Dmochowski was the head of the Section of Virology and Electron Microscopy, and a man who believed that virtually all cancer in the animal kingdom, including in human beings, was ultimately caused by viruses. It was an incredible time for the virologist who was interested in cancer because there had, during that period of time, been two discoveries of enormous importance: one was that leukemia in mice was caused by a virus and was, in fact, transmissible by injection from mouse to mouse; and there had been a discovery by two scientists - Drs. Stewart and Eddy, at the NIH that there was another virus called polyoma that could cause a large variety of different kinds of cancers in mice, but it could be treated in the laboratory much like other viruses could be treated. And I was a virologist who had expertise in dealing with ordinary viruses. And so, I was offered this postdoc. In late June of 1961, I drove in to Houston, found a small motel across from what was then the largest medical complex I had ever seen in my life, although it is dwarfed by what exists at the same site now, and here, sort of anchoring one in the south end of this impressive complex was this enormous, to my eye, imposing, overwhelming, pink building that just radiated hope. And I thought, oh my God, I am going to be a part of this!

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