6.
When Jay Freireich arrived at the
National Cancer Institute in 1955, he
reported to Gordon Zubrod, the head of
cancer treatment. Zubrod assigned him to
the children’s leukemia ward, on the
second floor of the main hospital
building in the center of campus.^5
Childhood leukemia was then one of
the most terrifying of all cancers. It
struck without warning. A child as young
as one or two would come down with a
fever. The fever would persist. Then
came a violent headache that would not
let up, followed by infections, one after
another, as the child’s body lost its