Frei’s award, for curing leukemia, and Erikson’s award, for identifying the function of a critical oncogene, might almost have been given to two unconnected pursuits. “I don’t remember any enthusiasm among the clinicians to reach out to the cancer biologists to synthesize the two poles of knowledge about cancer,” Erikson recalled. The two halves of cancer, cause and cure, having feasted and been feted together, sped off in separate taxis into the night.
