Lymphoma
Vincent T. DeVita, Jr, MD
Yale Cancer Center
Pioneer in combination chemotherapy
- Instrumental in developing combination chemotherapy programs that led to an effective regimen of curative chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease and diffuse large cell lymphomas.
- In 1980, appointed Director of the NCI and the National Cancer Program, a position he held until 1988.
- Director of the Yale Cancer Center from 1993 to 2003.
- In collaboration with another physician, DeVita developed the combination chemotherapy CMF, which still remains a useful therapy for breast cancer.
- Along with colleagues at the NCI, he developed the four-drug combination, known by the acronym MOPP, which increased the cure rate for patients with advanced Hodgkin's disease from nearly zero to over 70%.
