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American Morning

Look Back at Pioneering Scientists Who Didn't Live to See Results of Work

Aired December 26, 2001 - 07:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: By the middle of this year, the FDA ban on all gene therapy experiments was lifted allowing one promising trial for the heart to resume, but the scientist who pioneered the experiment unfortunately did not live to see the results.

CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sixty-one year old Homer Gum (ph) is not supposed to be alive, let alone shoveling mounds of fallen crab apples. Gum owes his life and the simply joy to Dr. Jeffrey Isner (ph), a Boston cardiologist who spent his life struggling to prove gene therapy could save ailing hearts.

DR. JEFFREY ISNER: I had some great vision, great forward- looking vision.

ROWLAND: Dr. Isner's vision delivered genes directly to a failing heart, triggering the growth of new life-sustaining blood vessels.

HOMER GUM: (INAUDIBLE) thought about it. I just thought it'd work and I thought that all the time they was doing it and I thought that after they was done, and I never dreamed of it not working.

ROWLAND: Neither did Isner and it was his confidence that led him to predict two years ago that he would win.

ISNER: I think that there is an experience here with gene therapy for cardiovascular disease that suggests that it is safe and possibly even effective and warrants its further continued investigation.

ROWLAND: But getting from there to here was a struggle. His pivotal study was abruptly stopped by the FDA after the death of a healthy gene therapy patient at another hospital. During the year and a half of the study blackout, some of Isner's patients who were promised the therapy died waiting. Isner's trailblazing work was also the subject of criticism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both of these cases were reported promptly to the FDA. ROWLAND: A major blow came when he was accused of not properly reporting two study subject deaths to the FDA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The amount of skepticism, criticism that Jeff - that was leveled at Jeff was enormous, and he held it with amazing aplomb.

ROWLAND: After two extremely difficult years came vindication. He was to report results of the study in November at the American Heart Association Conference that showed gene therapy not only worked, but worked well in heart patients.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ironic and sad thing, of course, is that a lot of that criticism was being laid to rest.

ROWLAND: Dr. Jeffrey Isner did not live to reap the full reward of his success. Of all things, he died of a heart attack on October 31 at age 53. He had no previous history of heart disease, so none of his research would have helped him. But that won't stop his close friends and colleagues from continuing his legacy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Along with the sadness, I think comes a strong sense of commitment.

ROWLAND: Is this something that you can do, just walk your backyard ...

(CROSSTALK)

ROWLAND: ... without stopping like this.

GUM: Not before.

ROWLAND: Two years ago, Homer Gum sat and watched his family plant his garden. He since made it bigger and bought two more acres of land.

GUM: He gave us another chance. (INAUDIBLE)

ROWLAND: And the work of Dr. Jeffrey Isner has given the promising field of gene therapy another chance. Rhonda Rowland, CNN, Carlisle, Illinois.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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