Historical Contribution: 1967, Schirmer and Scott, Prostate Cancer and Irradiation

1967
Schirmer HKA, Scott WW. Prostatic Cancer and Irradiation: Its Possible Mode of Action and its Clinical Indication. Southern Med Journal. 1967. 60;6:578-82.

HKA Schirmer (2nd from left, last row) 
and WW Scott (2nd from right, 1st row), 1986-87.

The Brady Urological Institute is well known for its advances in surgical treatment of prostatic disease, dating back to Hugh Hampton Young's perineal prostatectomy in 1904. The Brady was also a pioneer in radiation treatment for prostate cancer. In 1917, in the first Journal of Urology, HH Young demonstrated interstitial radiation (brachytherapy) for the treatment of prostate cancer. In this week's Historical Contribution, Horst Schirmer and William Scott embarked upon experimentation in freshly retrieved prostate cancer tissue to examine the possible effects of radiation therapy upon the tissue.

Based on the observations that (1) cancer cells derive chemical energy from lactic acid fermentation rather than oxidative metabolism (i.e. the Warburg effect; see FIGURE 2), (2) radiation preferentially affects cells undergoing aerobic metabolism, and (3) the catalase enzyme can attenuate the response of cells to radiation by reducing hydroxyl radical and molecular oxygen; Schirmer and Scott investigated the levels of catalase in normal prostate, well- and poorly-differentiated prostate cancers. They found that the catalase activity of normal prostate was 35 fold higher than catalase activity in prostate cancer. In addition, they found that well-differentiated prostate cancers had 6-fold higher catalase activity than poorly-differentiated cancers. They found corresponding decreases in oxygen consumption (i.e. respiration) and increases in glycolysis.

In the second part of this manuscript, Schirmer and Scott review three patients (of 16 treated at Hopkins) treated with prostate irradiation. Interestingly, all three patients had poorly differentiated prostate cancer and were treated with between 4500 and 5000 rads (a dose we now know to be biologically inadequate for prostate cancer). However, all three men experienced clinical improvement in prostate size and urinary symptoms. However, oncologic follow-up was short and the one patient who died of diffuse metastatic disease had residual, viable prostate cancer on histologic examination of the gland after his death.

Follow the link here to access the Southern Medical Journal.