Antoine Lacassagne

Antoine Marcellin Bernard Lacassagne (August 29, 1884, Villerest – December 16, 1971, Paris) was a French physician and biologist, a pioneer in radiology and cancer research.

Biography Antoine Lacassagne was born on August 29, 1884, in Villerest in a family of physicians. His father, Alexandre Lacassagne, was a military physician, criminologist and a professor of forensic medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in Lyon. His grandfather, surgeon, venereologist, and dermatologist Joseph Rollet (1824–1894), was a professor of hygiene at the same faculty. He was the older brother of the dermatologist and medical historian (1886–1960), and his sister Jeanne married histologist Albert Policard.

In 1932, he demonstrated that the injection of folliculin (estrogen) in mice increased the frequency of breast cancer in them. This discovery paved the way for a new therapy (antiestrogens), known as hormone therapy. He was elected as a member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine in 1948 and the French Academy of Sciences in 1949.

From 1951 until his retirement in 1954, he held the chair of experimental medicine at the Collège de France, where his lectures were focused on oncology. In July 1957, he was an invited member of the first Pugwash Conference, a movement advocating for peace and against weapons of mass destruction. He also served on the Patronage Committee of the French Federation against Atomic Armament.

After the death of Justin Godart in 1956, he assumed the presidency of the National League Against Cancer until his death on December 16, 1971, in an act of defenestration. He left three letters explaining his suicide, one of which was addressed to L'Express and published, in which he stated, "I have made a recent error in judgment that I cannot survive."