Andrew Schally | |
|---|---|
 Schally in 2000 | |
| Born | Andrzej Viktor Schally (1926-11-30)30 November 1926 |
| Died | 17 October 2024(2024-10-17) (aged 97) Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Education | McGill University |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Medicine |
| Institutions | |
| Sub-specialties | Endocrinology |
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Andrzej Viktor "Andrew"Schally (30 November 1926 – 17 October 2024) was a Polish-American endocrinologist who was a co-recipient, withRoger Guillemin andRosalyn Sussman Yalow, of the 1977Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[1][2][4] This award recognized his research in the discovery that thehypothalamus controls hormone production and release by thepituitary gland, which controls the regulation of other hormones in the body.[5] Later in life, Schally utilized his knowledge of hypothalamic hormones to research possible methods for birth control and cancer treatment.
Andrzej Wiktor Schally[6] was born inWilno in theSecond Polish Republic[1][2][4] (now Vilnius, Lithuania) on 30 November 1926,[7] the son of Brigadier GeneralKazimierz Schally, who was chief of the cabinet of PresidentIgnacy Mościcki of Poland, and Maria (née Łącka). He was born into a Jewish family.[8]
In September 1939, when Poland was attacked byNazi Germany and theSoviet Union, Schally escaped with Poland's PresidentIgnacy Mościcki, the prime minister and the whole cabinet to the neutral Romania, where they were interned[citation needed].
I was fortunate to survive the holocaust while living among the Jewish-Polish Community in Roumania. I used to speak Polish, Roumanian, Yiddish, Italian and some German and Russian, but I have almost completely forgotten them, and my French in which I used to excel is also now far from fluent.[2]
Immediately after the war, in 1945, Schally moved via Italy and France to the United Kingdom[2] where he changed his first name to Andrew.[6] Schally received his education in Scotland and England.[2] In 1952, he moved to Canada. He received his doctorate inendocrinology fromMcGill University in 1957.[2] That same year he left for a research career in the United States where he has worked principally atTulane University.[2]
Schally conducted research in endocrinology at the Miami Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Miami, Florida.[citation needed] A Canadian citizen when he left Canada, Schally became anaturalized citizen of the United States in 1962.[2] He was affiliated with theBaylor College of Medicine for some years in Houston, Texas.[2]
By 1966 Schally had processed 100,000 Pigs brains to isolate 2.8 mg ofthyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH)[9] developing a new realm of knowledge concerning the brain's control over the body chemistry. Schally explained in his 1977 Nobel Lecture that he, alongside his researchers, further dissected 250,000 porcinehypothalami in order to isolate 5 mg more of the hormone TRH to determine its molecular structure.[9] His work also addressed birth control methods and the effects ofgrowth hormones on the body. Together withRoger Guillemin he described theneurohormone gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) that controls follicle-stimulating hormone(FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), two hormones that are integral parts of reproduction and growth and development.
Schally received anhonoris causa doctors degree from theJagiellonian University inKraków.
Recognized as a Fellow of theKosciuszko Foundation of Eminent Scientists of Polish Origin and Ancestry.[10]
Schally was married to Margaret Rachel White (divorced), Ana Maria de Medeiros-Comaru (widowed).[4] He died at his home inMiami Beach, Florida on 17 October 2024, at the age of 97.[7][11]
In 1981, it was demonstrated that thegonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonistic analogs that Schally had developed between the years of 1972 and 1978 inhibited the growth of prostate cancer in rats. Alongside Dr. George Tolis, Schally conducted the first clinical trial of GnRH for patients with advancedprostate cancer in 1982. This method is now the preferred treatment for advanced prostate carcinoma. About 70% of patients with prostate cancer receive an agonist as their primary method of treatment.[9] According to Schally, his treatment causes fewer side effects than radiation andchemotherapy.[9] The previous method of treatment,orchiectomy or the administration of estrogens, was based on the research ofCharles Brenton Huggins.
In 2004, after the death of his wife due tothyroid cancer, Schally found comfort in continuing his research.[9]
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