James F. Holland

James Frederick Holland (May 16, 1925 – March 22, 2018) was an American physician and Distinguished Professor of Neoplastic Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Early in his career, he had worked for the National Cancer Institute and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Holland was considered a key figure in the development of cancer chemotherapy. His 1953 clinical trial on acute leukemia resulted in the formation of Acute Leukemia Group B, a research collaboration that later became known as the Cancer and Leukemia Group B. He served as president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research.

Early life Holland was born on May 16, 1925, in Morristown, New Jersey. James Holland was initially drawn to cardiology because his father suffered from heart disease. Holland's mother, Mary Louise Layer Holland,

Career In 1953, while Holland was a researcher at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), he designed a clinical trial for the treatment of acute leukemia. The study examined the combined use of two chemotherapy drugs, methotrexate and mercaptopurine. The trial was still in progress the next year when Holland moved to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. When the NCI's new chief of oncology, Gordon Zubrod, agreed to continue the trial, it became the first multicenter study of acute leukemia. Holland conducted further leukemia research with physicians from the NCI and the Children's Hospital of Buffalo. That research group received government funding for the study of chemotherapy. It became known as Acute Leukemia Group B (and later Cancer and Leukemia Group B).

Holland became a close associate of oncologist Emil "Tom" Frei. From the 1950s to the 1980s, either Holland or Frei chaired the CALGB. Holland–Frei Cancer Medicine became an influential oncology reference book; ten editions have been published.

Holland served as the president of two national cancer research organizations: the American Association for Cancer Research (1970–71) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (1976–78).

Personal life While he worked at Roswell Park, Holland met his wife, Jimmie C. Holland, who trained as a psychiatrist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Their marriage came to an end in a divorce. One of Holland's siblings, Thomas R. Holland (1926–2013), was the first oncologist in Morristown. His elder brother, Albert H. Holland Jr. (d. 1988), was the medical director of the FDA from 1954 to 1959. Holland's son, Steven M. Holland, an immunologist and infectious disease medicine physician, is the director of NIAID's division of intramural research.

Death He died at the age of 92 on March 22, 2018, at his home in Scarsdale, New York, from complications of cardiovascular disease.