Anthony Goldstone built a transplant program. It started in a broom cupboard.

Not many haematologists can say their clinical journey began in a broom cupboard. Anthony Goldstone can.

“Starting with a single patient in a broom cupboard—almost literally—we built a world-ranked programme that has treated thousands from across the UK and around the world,” he said.

Prof. Goldstone, CBE, co-chair of the SOHO UK Organizing Committee, has spent a multi-decade career mentoring the next generation while building formidable clinical and research infrastructure from scratch.

At age 28, he was a senior registrar in clinical and laboratory haematology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. After earning his MRCPath at age 31, he was appointed a consultant in clinical haematology at University College Hospital (UCH) in London.

According to Prof. Goldstone, one of the defining moments of his early career came in 1977, when he traveled to the Fred Hutchinson Transplant Center in Seattle for what he describes as a six-week “crash course” under Dr. C. Dean Buckner, deputy to Nobel laureate Dr. E. Donnall Thomas. During this time, UCH did not have a transplant unit, a dedicated ward, or staff trained in marrow transplantation. Prof. Goldstone returned to London with a clear mission to build the service from nothing.

Partnering with the Middlesex Hospital Haematology Department and David Linch, he developed the clinical protocols and bone marrow processing systems UCH lacked. In 1979 to 1980, he performed one of the UK’s early autologous transplants, validating the model and setting the programme on its upward path.The first procedure was carried out in a cramped side room of a Nightingale ward beside unrelated medical patients, Prof. Goldstone said.

A chance conversation at his wife’s hairdresser eventually led to charitable fundraising from the Sportsman’s Aid Society, enabling UCH to construct its first dedicated leukemia unit, which opened in 1981.

As the programme expanded, Prof. Goldstone assumed broader leadership responsibilities and by the mid-1980s became the first clinical director in any specialty in his university teaching hospital, overseeing strategy, infrastructure, and growth. Under his leadership, UCH’s haematology services grew into what he described as “the biggest haematology department in Europe,” while he also helped bridge UK science with US research groups, linking MRC leukemia trials with ECOG and collaborating with physician-scientists such as Drs. Martin Tallman and Jacob Rowe.
His influence extended beyond Europe and North America. Prof. Goldstone recalled delivering a series of lectures on transplantation in China during the 1980s, a period he credits with contributing to the early development of transplant programmes there.

Despite these achievements and hundreds of peer-reviewed published papers, Prof. Goldstone has said the recognition he values most is receiving the American Society of Hematology clinical/career mentoring award in 2021, of which he was the first non-American recipient.

Professor Charles Craddock, CBE, co-chair of the SOHO UK Organizing Committee, called Prof. Goldstone a “pioneer” and “incredibly astute with a mind like a razor.” Prof. Craddock added, “[Prof. Goldstone] has supported the next generation throughout his life.”