Andrew Schally

Andrzej Viktor "Andrew" Schally (30 November 1926 – 17 October 2024) was a Polish-American endocrinologist who was a co-recipient, with Roger Guillemin and Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Later in life, Schally utilized his knowledge of hypothalamic hormones to research possible methods for birth control and cancer treatment.

Life and career Andrzej Wiktor Schally was born in Wilno in the Second Polish Republic His work also addressed birth control methods and the effects of growth hormones on the body. Together with Roger Guillemin he described the neurohormone gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) that controls follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), two hormones that are integral parts of reproduction and growth and development.

Schally received an honoris causa doctors degree from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

Recognized as a Fellow of the Kosciuszko Foundation of Eminent Scientists of Polish Origin and Ancestry.

Schally was married to Margaret Rachel White (divorced), Ana Maria de Medeiros-Comaru (deceased), Maria de Lourdes Schally (widowed). He died at his home in Miami Beach, Florida , on 17 October 2024, at the age of 97.

Cancer research In 1981, it was demonstrated that the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonistic analogs that Schally had developed between the years of 1972 and 1978 inhibited the growth of prostate cancer in rats. Alongside Dr. George Tolis, Schally conducted the first clinical trial of GnRH for patients with advanced prostate cancer in 1982. This method is now the preferred treatment for advanced prostate carcinoma. About 70% of patients with prostate cancer receive an agonist as their primary method of treatment. Albert Lasker Award (1975) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1977) Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1978)