Cancer breakthrough that saved lives
Dr Angela Brodie Breast cancer research pioneer BORN SEPTEMBER 28, 1934 DIED JUNE 7, 2017, AGED 82
DR ANGELA BRODIE was an internationally recognised scientist whose groundbreaking research led to a new class of drugs being made available to treat breast cancer patients. Described as one of the most important breakthroughs in the treatment of the disease, Brodie’s work has helped save the lives of thousands of women.
At the heart of her research was the development of aromatase inhibitors, which help to prevent recurrence of breast cancer in post-menopausal women by reducing oestrogen produced by the body, thereby cutting off the fuel that promotes the growth of cancer cells.
While her discovery was initially met with scepticism, Brodie’s persistence eventually paid off in 1982. “We presented our data at the National Institutes of Health and they brought up one objection after another,” said her husband Dr Harry Brodie, a bio-organic chemist, with whom she often worked.
“Then we happened to go to a meeting in Europe and we ran into [British oncologist] Charles Coombes. He said, ‘Send me the material. I can do it.’ He had 11 patients in London and they responded.” From the clinical trials they found 30 per cent of the London patients saw their cancers go into remission. The findings directed scientists and drug companies to other chemicals and new strategies that help block the growth of breast cancer.
It was Brodie’s father Herbert who first got her interested in science. He had been an organic chemist who helped develop polyurethanes.
When she was 10, Manchesterborn Brodie began studying at a Quaker boarding school where she was “inspired to be of use to the community”. In 1961, after receiving a doctorate in biochemistry from Manchester University, she moved to the United States on a fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. Much of her work into aromatase inhibitors was carried out at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, where she met her husband Harry. He had synthesised the first aromatase inhibitors as part of his research into contraceptives but, unable to make them 100 per cent effective, his wife suggested the hormoneblocking compound be reused as a way to treat breast cancer.
Brodie, who retired last year, died of complications from Parkinson’s disease and is survived by her husband and son Mark. Another son John died in 2006.