Teresa J. Vietti

Teresa J. Vietti (November 5, 1927 – January 25, 2010) was an American physician. She is best known for her pioneering work and research in pediatric cancer. Her research discovered the genetics of leukemia, new chemotherapy agents and tracked the effects of chemotherapy on childhood cancer survivors. Vietti also wrote about her research and was an editor of the Journal of Pediatric Hematology and a co-editor of Clinical Pediatric Oncology. According to Washington University in St. Louis, she was known as "the mother of pediatric cancer therapy."

Biography

Vietti was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and had a twin sister, Eleanor Ardel Vietti and a younger brother, Victor. Both she and her twin sister were interested in science and medicine as young girls.

Vietti went to Rice University when she was seventeen and graduated in 1949. She then went on to Baylor College of Medicine for her medical degree, graduating in 1953. Also in 1961, she visited her sister in Vietnam at the leprosarium where Ardel worked. Vietti became an assistant professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine also in 1961. Vietti would never see her sister again, but she did talk about her for the 1998 radio program, The Only Woman Left Behind.

In 1962 and 1963, she was a principal investigator in a Washington University study on the effects of lead intoxication in children. In 1970, Vietti received a grant from the St. Louis Leukemia Guild to study treatments for leukemia. In 1972, Vietti became a full professor at Washington University. Her research uncovered the genetic basis of leukemia, new chemotherapy agents and also studied the long-term effects of chemotherapy on childhood cancer survivors. She was an editor of the Journal of Pediatric Hematology and a co-editor of Clinical Pediatric Oncology. The Leukemia Society of America presented her with their Return of the Child Award in 1999. In 2013, Washington University created 3 pediatric scholar positions, one of which was named after Vietti.