John Goldman has been a towering figure in haematology. He has made seminal contributions, particularly in the fields of stem cell transplantation and chronic myeloid leukaemia. He will be remembered as a pioneer, a leader, a visionary, and a delightful colleague. His many achievements have and will be expanded upon by others who prepare their own tributes. I wanted to add my personal experience as one of the many hematologists mentored by John, all of us heartbroken by his premature death.
At a personal level, his influence has been fundamental in shaping the translational focus of my academic activities, my passion to investigate the biology and clinical management of leukemia and more recently, to my own mentoring style. I was invited to undertake a research project in Professor Goldman’s laboratory in 1989. He could see the potential to apply the recently developed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology to address key biological and clinical questions in leukemia. This exemplified his capacity to rapidly identify the implications of a new technology or new discovery and apply it to his fields of interest. He suggested that I develop the PCR assay in his laboratory to identify residual CML cells in patients who had achieved cytogenetic remissions after allografts. Building on the work of Gareth Morgan and others, some papers demonstrating the value and implications of these studies were published. During this period I saw first-hand John’s constant quest to improve our understanding of leukemia in order to develop better diagnostic and monitoring tools and better therapies, and his remarkable ability to recognize new developments that would have major clinical impact.
With the development of imatinib, the first targeted therapy for leukemia, I had the privilege to work closely with John and many others (including Jerry Radich, Sue Branford, Jaspal Kaeda, Andreas Hochhaus) to assess and validate the clinical value of measuring the leukemic load in the blood and marrow of CML patients using the newly developed quantitative PCR assay. This allowed us to define new response parameters, termed major molecular response (MMR) and complete molecular response (CMR) in CML patients treated with imatinib or other therapies. John was the driving force behind this work, but was happy to stay in the background, never seeking senior authorship on key papers that he could have rightly claimed.
In 2005 John organized a landmark international conference aiming to achieve harmony amongst laboratories that were using quantitative PCR to measure and report molecular response to imatinib therapy in CML patients. His experience as a Visiting Professor at the NIH in America convinced him that there was a desperate need to create order out of chaos in this area. There was strong evidence that molecular response measures were an excellent guide to rational therapy in CML but without standardization across laboratories and across borders this was not going to benefit patients who were being treated outside a limited number of academic centres. The conference that he organized brought together global experts for 2 days and resulted in the development of the international scale to harmonize measurement of the leukemic transcript, something now used almost universally to measure individual responses to therapy in CML patients and to assess the effectiveness of new drugs and new combinations in the clinical trial setting.
In 2007 Jorge Cortes, John and I had a memorable meal overlooking the Pathenon in Athens where we talked about the possibility of setting up an international CML Foundation with a mission to improve outcomes for patients with CML globally. We all agreed it would be great to have a CML Foundation but that it would take a huge commitment. Jorge and I both knew that getting John’s endorsement would be the key to making this a reality. Twelve months later John came back to us and said that after careful consideration he thought we should give it a go. I was delighted – I knew that leading this new CML Foundation would be the perfect role for John with his unique understanding of the key challenges in CML, excellent global connections, as well as his vision and leadership. I also knew that having committed to it, John would devote all of his energy and passion to its success. Over the past 5 years as Chair of the iCMLf John has been an inspirational leader, working closely with Nicola Evans, our Chief Executive, to build a strong foundation that is having a positive impact on the lives of many CML patients, in particular those patients in the emerging economies. John always had a passion for visiting and working with hematologists in India, Africa and South America, and this was the perfect vehicle for him to make further contributions in those regions. The ongoing programs of the iCMLf will be one of John’s many lasting legacies.
John has also Chaired the European School of Hematology (ESH) CML meeting for many years and in 2009 brought together iCMLf and ESH to run this meeting jointly. Together with Jorge Cortes, I have been privileged to co-chair this meeting with John for the past 5 years. Its pre-eminent position as THE CML meeting is solely due to John’s capacity to bring all of the key clinicians and researchers in the field together and to constantly refresh the meeting with new ideas and new directions. This will be another John Goldman legacy and it is fitting that the organizing committee unanimously agreed to rename the meeting the “John Goldman annual iCMLf/ESH meeting”.
John has been a mentor to so many hematologists and scientists over the past few decades. Their stories are all individual but have common themes, as can be seen by the many other tributes that have been written since John’s passing (available on the iCMLf website). His influence can be seen world-wide when you consider the many highly successful and influential scientists and clinicians who would name him as their key mentor. As well as his clinical acumen and scientific excellence it is his fundamental decency, good humour, and joy in discovery that will provide inspiration for the many people who have had the good fortune to work with him over the past 40 years.
Tim Hughes
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