Georges Mathé

: Date of birth: 09/07/1922
: Date of death: 15/10/2010
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BIOGRAPHY

While French oncologist and immunologist Georges Mathé is best known for performing the first successful allogeneic bone marrow transplant he also played a significant role in developing the third-generation platinum anticancer drug, oxaliplatin.

Towards the end of the 1970s, following observations that chronic exposure to both cisplatin or carboplatin induced resistance of cancerous cells to the agent used in treatment and cross-resistance between the two compounds, Mathé set about looking for new compounds. When his first candidate (proved difficult to solubilise in water or serum he asked Japanese contacts who specialised in heavy metals to select a cyclic structured platinum where solubility would be satisfactory.

They came up with oxaliplatin, which proved to be highly soluble and displayed good anticancer activity against a wide range of tumours. Mathé went on to show oxaliplatin showed no cross-resistance with either cisplatin or carboplatin, but his phase 1 trial revealed significant nausea and vomiting. Working with another French oncologist, David Machover, he found that combining oxaliplatin with established chemotherapy drugs fluorouracil (5FU) and folinic acid appeared to neutralise the toxic effects. Together with Francis Lévi he showed that patients experienced less toxicity and greater efficacy by delivering most of the 5FU and folinic acid at night, and most of the oxaliplatin during the day.

Mathé studied medicine at the University of Paris and fought with the French resistance against Germany in World War II. He was arrested and sent to a concentration camp in Poland in a cattle car, but the war ended shortly after he arrived.

In 1958, Mathé performed the first bone marrow graft between unrelated donors and hosts to save Yugoslavian nuclear researchers who had been accidentally irradiated. Soon after he observed they developed a ‘debilitating and wasting condition’, making him the first person to define what has since come to be known as graft versus host disease. Mathé also participated in the first successful kidney grafts between non-related donors and hosts, and in 1963 announced he had cured a patient of leukaemia by a bone marrow transplant.

Mathé was noted for his organisational skills, playing a major role in the creation and development of France’s ARC cancer research foundation and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), and also the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), where he was the founding president of the organisation’s forerunner.

His empathy for patients was a result of spending two years in hospital after contracting hepatitis B, leading him to say in an interview in New Scientist in 1974, “Experiencing suffering is necessary to be a complete doctor.”