Word: acth
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...quick succession came the hormones ACTH and cortisone, which also produced brief remissions in acute leukemia (as in some other cancers of the blood and lymphatic system). Then came another antimetabolite. pioneered by Dr. Joseph H. Burchenal of Memorial Center: 6-mercaptopurine, which interferes with cell nutrition by supplying a counterfeit purine. Physicians treating acute leukemia now ring the changes on these, using one until it loses its effect, then switching to another, sometimes back to the first. No child victims of acute leukemia have yet been saved, but Dr. Farber can report a heartening gain. A dozen years...
...many as 10% of patients with high blood pressure, after intensive treatment for several months with hydralazine (trade name: Apresoline), develop symptoms resembling those of rheumatoid arthritis or disseminated lupus erythematosus; stubborn cases may need treatment with ACTH or cortisone-type hormones-which can also be dangerous (see below...
...Worst of all, Dr. Rising warns, a doctor treating a woman during pregnancy with anesthetics, X rays, ACTH or cortisone-type hormones, may subject the fetus to oxygen shortage or some other threat. The result: "Physicians now face the horrible possibility that they, in addition to certain 'acts of God,' are responsible for many developmental defects." He lists babies born with one eye, abnormal hearts, cleft palate or mongolism, and Siamese twins...
...gland that calls forth Magnus Andersen's specialized skill is the pituitary, whose function was unknown in Melville's day. Today medicine knows the pituitary as a master gland in the body's complex and delicately balanced hormonal system; it secretes, among others, the master hormone ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone), which regulates activity of the adrenal glands astride the kidneys...
Another source of ACTH is the tiny hog pituitaries (generally used in the U.S.), but it takes half a dozen of them to make a single average medical dose. The worldwide demand for the hormone is now so great that many manufacturers are turning to the far larger whale glands -the size of an egg. Melville's pelagic Cain now helps to supply doctors with a valued treatment for at least 30 diseases, from common and crippling rheumatoid arthritis to scleroderma...