Teresa J. Vietti, pediatric oncology pioneer, dies at 82

Washington University in St.Louis

January 26, 2010
By Beth Miller

Teresa J. Vietti, M.D., a pediatric oncologist who earned the nickname “the mother of pediatric cancer therapy,” died Monday, Jan. 25, 2010, of natural causes in St. Louis. She was 82.

Vietti, professor emeritus of pediatrics and of radiology, was an internationally renowned pioneer of pediatric cancer research and treatment for more than 40 years. She conceived the concept of multi-institution pediatric cooperative groups and founded the Pediatric Oncology Group (POG), now known as the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), which she chaired for its first 15 years. Under her leadership, POG grew to more than 100 institutions and 1,500 investigators. Today, COG has more than 200 institutions and more than 5,000 investigators. The success and growth of POG and COG is the impetus behind the participation of more than 60 percent of pediatric cancer patients in clinical trials worldwide.

Vietti’s basic science studies of the mechanisms of action of chemotherapy drugs and their development as key components to multi-agent therapy in childhood cancer paved the way for the remarkable increase in survival in childhood cancer from less than 15 percent to about 80 percent over the past four decades. She designed and directed more than 200 clinical trials in the treatment of childhood cancer and published more than 200 research articles in the most prestigious scientific journals.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1927, Vietti and her twin sister, Eleanor Ardel, became interested in science and medicine as very young girls. Vietti bought her first microscope at age 9, entered Rice University at age 17, and then earned a medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in 1953. She arrived at St. Louis Children’s Hospital that same year for an internship and residency in pediatrics.

After further training in hematology, Vietti returned to Washington University School of Medicine in 1961 as assistant professor of pediatrics, becoming full professor in 1972. She became chief of the pediatric hematology/oncology division in 1970 and remained in that role until 1986.

“Teresa Vietti’s compassion and dedication as a clinician, combined with her determined focus on scientific discovery, made her an outstanding member of the School of Medicine faculty and of the medical field,” said Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “A generation of pediatric hematologists and oncologists today have her to thank for the advances in the field over the last 40 years.”

Throughout her career, Vietti played a critical role in the training of dozens of pediatric hematologists/oncologists while also focusing her clinical work and research on soft tissue and bone sarcoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Her scientific accomplishments included the genetic basis of leukemia, the pharmacology of new chemotherapy agents and the long-term effects of chemotherapy in survivors of childhood cancer.


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Copyright 2010