LBL-42. X-Ray Irradiation of the Normal Pituitary Gland During
Conventional Cancer Therapy
Between 1948 and 1949, at the Laguna Honda Home (a hospital for destitute patients) in San
Francisco, the Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, University of California, conducted a study on
the effects of adjuvant x-ray irradiation of the normal pituitary gland, during treatment of cancers in
other tissues (e.g., skin melanoma, breast, and prostate).
The study was designed to deliver 8,000 to 10,000 rads to the subject s pituitary gland in hopes that
the reduced secretion of pituitary hormones would benefit the cancer treatment. At least one patient,
a 60-year-old female with breast cancer and metastases of the skin, was treated by irradiation of her
pituitary gland. Clinical laboratory indicators were evaluated to determine whether hypophysectomy
by irradiation would be more effective than surgical removal of the
pituitary gland.
Follow-up results of this study were apparently not reported. The Laboratory of Experimental
Oncology at Laguna Honda Home was funded by the National Cancer Institute. The study was
performed with support of a U.S. Atomic Energy Commission research fellow.
References
Laboratory of Experimental Oncology Annual Report 1948 1949. San Francisco: University of
California at San Francisco, 1949, pp. 16 17 Special Collections Library, San Francisco Record
Series: School of Medicine, Committee Reports 1917 1957, Carton 1, Folder School of Medicine
Research Committee 3.
From
Human Radiation Experiments Associated with the U.S. Department
of Energy and Its Predecessors Department of Energy
Return to Selected Descriptions of AEC Experiments
involving Human Subjects