Event will celebrate Anne Kessinger, M.D.

Anne Kessinger, M.D., a pioneer in the field of oncology research and a beloved clinician and educator, will be honored by the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Oncology and Hematology, with an event to celebrate her appointment to professor emerita status.

The event will celebrate Dr. Kessinger’s many years of service — she has been on faculty at UNMC since 1972 and served as chief of the UNMC Division of Oncology/Hematology from 1991 to 1999, as well as receiving her residency and fellowship training in oncology at UNMC — and her countless accomplishments in her field.

Dr. Kessinger, a winner of the University of Nebraska’s Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award in 1997, perhaps is best known for her work in devising a way to collect hematopoietic stem cells through a special process called apheresis — through veins in the arm, much like donating blood.

The process was effective and enabled the use of peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in humans. The therapy provided an alternative and is now standard practice around the world.

“She was one of the first scientists and physicians to do research and clinical trials on patients for peripheral stem cell transplants,” said Julie M. Vose, M.D., M.B.A., the Neumann M. and Mildred E. Harris Professor and chief of the division of oncology/hematology. “She was a pioneer in evaluating stem cells that circulate in the blood and researched how to collect them. In doing so, we could then procure stem cells on an outpatient basis, and it was no longer necessary to make patients go through an invasive procedure in the operating room to get the cells.

“Our transplant program performed some of the very first peripheral blood transplants here based on her research. And we were one of the first four sites worldwide who simultaneously reported performing stem cell transplants using peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cells.”

Besides being a good scientist, Dr. Kessinger is an extremely caring and kind physician, said James Armitage, M.D., Joe Shapiro Professor of Medicine and a longtime colleague.

“She had a special interest in unusual tumors. People on the faculty would realize if you had a patient who had a cancer you’d never heard of before, Anne would probably know a lot about it. Anne’s one of the more extraordinary faculty we’ve ever had.”

She has been instrumental in forming many of the next generation of oncologists through the years, Dr. Vose said.

“She’s a very special person who has helped many of us that are oncologists in the field to take research and clinical care to the next step. She’s a very caring and down-to-earth person who’s taught many of us how to be great clinicians,” she said.

As professor emerita, Dr. Vose said, Dr. Kessinger will continue helping with the Institutional Review Board and Scientific Review Board, trying to help improve clinical trials design.

“She’ll be serving on some other committees, as well, to continue to help the division in our academic and research pursuits,” Dr. Vose said.