Charles Brenton Huggins | |
|---|---|
 Huggins in 1966 | |
| Born | (1901-09-22)September 22, 1901 Halifax,Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Died | January 12, 1997(1997-01-12) (aged 95) |
| Citizenship | American |
| Education | Acadia University Harvard University |
| Known for | prostate cancer hormones |
| Awards | Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine(1966) Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh(1956) Gairdner Foundation International Award(1966) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | physiology |
| Institutions | University of Michigan,University of Chicago |
Charles Brenton Huggins (September 22, 1901 – January 12, 1997) was a Canadian-American surgeon and physiologist known for his work onprostate function,prostate cancer, andbreast cancer. Born inHalifax in 1901, Huggins moved to the United States for medical school. He was one of the founding staff members of theUniversity of Chicago Medical School, where he remained for the duration of his professional research career. Huggins's work on howsex hormones influence prostate function ultimately led to his discovery of hormone therapies to treat prostate cancer. For this finding, he was awarded the 1966Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. In addition to his work on prostate cancer, Huggins explored the relationship between hormones and breast cancer, developed ananimal model for breast cancer, and developedchromogenic substrates that are widely used for biochemical analyses. Huggins continued to perform research into his 90s; he died inChicago in 1997.
Charles Brenton Huggins was born September 22, 1901, inHalifax,Nova Scotia, to Charles E. Huggins and Bessie Maria Spencer.[1][2] At 19, he graduated fromAcadia University with aBA degree, supplementing his Acadia coursework with summer courses in physical and organic chemistry atColumbia University.[3][1] Huggins went on toHarvard Medical School, and received hisMD degree in 1924. He served his internship and residency in general surgery withFrederick A. Coller at theUniversity of Michigan.[3] While at Michigan, Huggins met operating room nurse Margaret Wellman; they married in 1927.[1]
In 1927, Huggins was recruited to the newUniversity of Chicago Medical School by chairman of surgeryDallas Phemister. As one of the eight original staff members of the school, Huggins was assigned to theurology department, and had to rapidly teach himself the specialty.[1] In 1931, Phemister offered Huggins a paid research sabbatical in Europe; Huggins spent several months at London'sLister Institute working inRobert Robison's lab to deepen his knowledge in biochemistry.[1][4] He was promoted toassociate professor in 1933, and fullprofessor in 1936.[2]
In 1951, businessman and longtime financial supporter of Huggins's researchBen E. May endowed the Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Chicago. Huggins eventually became the May Laboratory's director, serving in the position until 1969. In 1962, he was granted anendowed professorship, the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor.[1]
Notable students of Professor Huggins included Howard Guy Williams-Ashman, Shutsung Liao,Paul Talalay andA. Hari Reddi.[5][6]
A plaque in Professor's Huggins office carried his motto: "Discovery is our business."[7] This motto signified his ethos to research and medical discovery.
Huggins's early research work focused on bone physiology. However, he eventually felt this bone work was unlikely to lead to medical progress, and set it aside in favor of studying the male urogenital tract. Through the 1930s, Huggins published work characterizing the constituents ofsemen and which organ (seminal vesicles or prostate) they derive from.[8] In 1939, Huggins described a method for isolating prostate fluid from dogs, which served as the foundation for much of his subsequent work.[8] He showed that the prostate requires androgens (male sex hormones) in order to function, and that androgen treatment could be counteracted by treatment with estrogens.[8] In the course of this work, he discovered that older dogs tended to have enlarged prostates, and that these enlarged prostates could be shrunk by administering estrogen.[1][8]
In 1940 and 1941, Huggins – along with studentsClarence V. Hodges andWilliam Wallace Scott – published a series of three papers detailing his most famous finding: that counteracting androgen activity byorchiectomy (surgical removal of the testicles) or estrogen treatment shrank tumors in many men with metastatic prostate cancer.[3][8] These men experienced dramatic pain relief within days of the treatment; four of the original 21 treated went on to survive more than 12 years from the original treatment.[3]
Huggins's work on prostate cancer often necessitated measuring the amount of prostate-derived enzymes in the blood. To this end, Huggins developedcolorimetric methods for quantifying the concentration of variousphosphatases,glucuronidases, andesterases. These assays relied onchromogenic substrates (substances that change color in response to a given enzyme), a term Huggins coined, and a concept he pioneered.[8]
In the 1950s, Huggins went on to show an analogous relationship between sex hormones and breast cancer – tumor growth was stimulated by estrogens, and slowed by androgens. At the time breast cancer research was hindered by the lack of ananimal model. Huggins described the first reliable model:7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene administered orally to rats, 100% of which rapidly developed breast tumors; the model is now called Huggins's tumor.[1] Around this time, Huggins wound down his surgical practice, turning his attention to full-time scientific research.[3]
Huggins published over 200 peer-reviewed papers describing his research.[1]
Huggins was elected to the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences and theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1949.[9][10] In 1962, he was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society,[11] and was awarded theLasker Award the following year. In 1966, following nominations from noted surgeonJ. Hartwell Harrison as well as Nobel laureatesOtto H. Warburg,William P. Murphy, andAlbert Szent-Györgyi, Huggins was awarded theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discoveries concerning hormonal treatment of prostatic cancer".[12][2] From 1972 to 1979, Huggins was named the ceremonialchancellor of his alma mater, Acadia University.[3] His prize, shared with fellow cancer researcherPeyton Rous, was just the second Nobel for cancer treatment or research.[13]
Huggins and his wife Margaret had a son and a daughter. His son, Charles E. Huggins, was also a surgeon, and directed the Massachusetts General Hospital blood bank until his death in 1990. Margaret Huggins died in 1983.[1] Huggins devoted much of his time to laboratory work, logging long hours in the lab, and continuing to perform hands-on laboratory work in his 90s. Huggins died on January 12, 1997, inChicago, Illinois, aged 95.[1]
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