Notes

In Memoriam: Dr. Elwood V. Jensen

Dr. Elwood V. Jensen

Dr. Elwood V. Jensen, who discovered that hormones bind to receptor proteins in cells, died December 16 at the age of 92. His research led to the development of treatments that enhance or inhibit the effects of hormones and, according to the Lasker Foundation, this work "transformed the treatment of breast cancer patients and saves or prolongs more than 100,000 lives annually."
Dr. Jensen graduated from Wittenberg College in 1940 and completed his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Chicago in 1944. Three years later, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of surgery. At that time, researchers believed that hormones underwent a series of chemical reactions that led to the production of enzymes that affect cells.
In 1958, Dr. Jensen found that estrogen remains chemically unchanged once inside the cell. He also showed that estrogen binds to a hormone receptor that migrates to the nucleus and turns on specific genes.
By 1968, Dr. Jensen had developed a test to detect estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells. He and his colleagues found that about one-third of breast cancers have estrogen receptors and may depend on estrogen for growth. Testing the estrogen receptor-status of cancer cells is now standard for patients with breast cancer.
In the 1970s, Dr. Jensen and Dr. V. Craig Jordan showed that women with estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer benefited from tamoxifen (Novaldex), a drug that binds to the estrogen receptor and inhibits the binding of estrogen. The Food and Drug Administration approved tamoxifen for the treatment of breast cancer in 1977 and for the prevention of breast cancer in 1990.
Dr. Jensen was an original member and later director of the University of Chicago's Ben May Department for Cancer Research. From 1983 to 1987, he served as medical director for the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Zurich, Switzerland. Dr. Jensen also spent time at the National Institutes of Health, Cornell Medical College, the University of Hamburg, and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. In 2002, he joined the University of Cincinnati, where he was the George J. and Elizabeth Wile Chair in Cancer Research. He continued his research there until late 2011.
Dr. Jensen was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1974 and was a co-recipient of the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2004.