Professor Riehm was the creator and intellectual leader of the BFM group in the late 80s and 90s. He simply designed the way we treat (and cure) acute lymphoblastic leukemia even now. He displayed a very active outreach activity back in the day when these cooperations were not as common as they are now, working with partners in middle income countries who followed his strategies which now are part of the strongest network for clinical trials in ALL (thr iBFM). He was an influencial leader for many years in the beginning of the cure time for ALL in many countries in the world. I personally met him at a SIOP meeting where he always attended and presented discussions that are still remembered by many of us and always brought thought-provoking controversies. Our younger colleagues would probably not know that the combination of drugs (eg Protocol I for ALL, prednisone pre-phase, day 8th evaluation in ALL) were based on his research and we use them until now.

He has been given the SIOP’s Lifetime Achievement Award based on his seminal contributions to the cure of children with ALL and for his participation at SIOP related activities through the BFM group.

Watch the video from Prof Hansjörg Riehm here