Charles Brenton Huggins

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"Charles Huggins" redirects here. For the politician, see Charlie Huggins.
Charles Brenton Huggins
Gairdner Foundation International Award (1966)
Scientific career
Fieldsphysiology
InstitutionsUniversity 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 on

animal model for breast cancer, and developed "chromogenic substrate"s that are widely used for biochemical analyses. Huggins continued to perform research into his 90s; he died in Chicago
in 1997.

Early life and education

Charles Brenton Huggins was born September 22nd, 1901 in

Halifax, Nova Scotia to Charles E. Huggins and Bessie Maria Spencer.[1][2] At 19, he graduated from Acadia University with a BA degree, supplementing his Acadia coursework with summer courses in physical and organic chemistry at Columbia University.[3][1] Huggins went on to Harvard Medical School, and received his MD degree in 1924. He served his internship and residency in general surgery with Frederick A. Coller at the University of Michigan.[3] While at Michigan, Huggins met operating room nurse Margaret Wellman; they married in 1927.[1]

Academic career

In 1927, Huggins was recruited to the new

Lister Institute working in Robert Robison's lab to deepen his knowledge in biochemistry.[1][4] He was promoted to associate professor in 1933, and full professor in 1936.[2]

In 1951, businessman and longtime financial supporter of Huggins' research

endowed professorship, the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor.[1]

Research

Huggins' 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 of

seminal vesicles or prostate) they derive from.[5] In 1939, Huggins described a method for isolating prostate fluid from dogs, which served as the foundation for much of his subsequent work.[5] 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.[5] 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][5]

In 1940 and 1941, Huggins – along with students Clarence V. Hodges and William Wallace Scott – published a series of three papers detailing his most famous finding: that counteracting androgen activity by orchiectomy (surgical removal of the testicles) or estrogen treatment shrunk tumors in many men with metastatic prostate cancer.[3][5] 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' work on prostate cancer often necessitated measuring the amount of prostate-derived enzymes in the blood. To this end, Huggins developed colorimetric methods for quantifying the concentration of various phosphatases, glucuronidases, and esterases. These assays relied on "chromogenic substrates" (substances that change color in response to a given enzyme), a term Huggins coined, and a concept he pioneered.[5]

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 an

7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene administered orally to rats, 100% of which rapidly developed breast tumors; the model is now called "Huggins Tumor".[1] Around this time, Huggins wound down his surgical practice, turning his attention to full-time scientific research.[3]

Altogether, Huggins published over 200 peer-reviewed papers describing his research.[1]

Honors

Huggins was elected to the United States

Peyton Rous, was just the second Nobel for cancer treatment or research.[10]

Personal life

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.

Chicago, Illinois, aged 95.[1]

References

  1. ^
    PMID 11623829
    .
  2. ^ a b c "Charles B. Huggins". Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1963–1970. Elsevier. 1972. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Charles B. Huggins, MD, 1901–1997". University of Chicago Medicine 1997 Press Releases. University of Chicago. 12 January 1997. Archived from the original on 21 June 2010. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  4. S2CID 221547609
    .
  5. ^
    PMID 14301033
    .
  6. ^ "Charles B. Huggins". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  7. ^ "Charles Brenton Huggins". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  8. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
  9. PMID 26838478
    .
  10. ^ Altman, Lawrence K. (January 15, 1997), "C. B. Huggins Dies at 95; Won Nobel for Cancer Work", The New York Times, retrieved October 13, 2017

External links

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