Turning off Hormonal Influences

His first patient was a young mother of two (aged 33) who had already had one breast removed, yet the cancer was still spreading and her case seemed hopeless. In June 1895, he removed her ovaries and fallopian tubes. Five weeks later the tumour masses had shrunk in size and had become softer to the touch, and seven months later he was able to state All vestiges of her previous cancerous disease had disappeared...and she is apparently in excellent health.  

Encouraged by this success, he carried out the same operation on a second woman whose case seemed even more hopeless. She was 40 years of age and reported that she had first noticed the growth in her right breast about five years earlier. At the time Beatson first saw her, the tumour extended over much of the breast and there were numerous small tumour masses under her arms and in her neck. Clearly, the cancer had metastasized via the lymphatic system to these various lymph nodes, and she was in considerable pain. She had already been refused treatment at two other local infirmaries on the 

These highly positive results led Beatson to speculate that certain male cancers, most notably prostatic cancer, might also be under the control of the male secretory organs the testes I think that it is possibly in the direction of an altered condition of the ovary and testicles that we are to look for the real exciting cause of cancer. Beatson s speculations have proved to be remarkably perceptive with regard to the two major hormone-dependent cancers -those of the breast and prostate. 

Prostate cancer is responsible for 50,000 deaths each year in Europe and North America and its incidence is increasing. At present, it is the second most important cancer in men, but by the year 2010, it is destined to overtake lung cancer and become the number one cause of cancer mortality. Interestingly, it is one of the few cancers for which there is no apparent link with smoking. 

The mass of subsequent chemistry carried out with these steroid hormones has been described on many occasions (see, for example, Murder, Magic and Medicine) and led to the discovery of two major classes of drugs the oral contraceptives and the steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, with a resultant revolution in birth control and the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and skin disease. 

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