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Angela Hartley Brodie (28 September 1934 – 7 June 2017) was a British biochemist who pioneered development of steroidal aromatase inhibitors in cancer research. Born in Greater Manchester, Brodie studied chemical pathology to a doctoral level in Sheffield and was awarded a fellowship sponsored by National Institutes of Health. After 17 years of working in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts on oral contraceptives with Harry Brodie, whom she married, she switched focus to the effects of the estrogen-producing enzyme, aromatase, on breast cancer.
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Brodie managed to get an aromatase inhibitor into a limited clinical trial in breast cancer patients in London, which had such a profound effect that it led to Novartis-sponsored trials, the development of formestane, the first aromatase inhibitor, eventually marketed in 1994. Brodie's work has been hailed "as among the most important contributions to cancer cure."
Early life and education
Brodie was born Angela Hartley on 28 September 1934 in Oldham, Lancashire, England. Her father, Herbert Hartley, was an industrial chemist working in polyurethanes who inspired her interest in science. Brodie was educated at a Quaker boarding school before studying at University of Sheffield, where she earned a degree in Biochemistry.
After leaving university, she took a job in a blood bank before finding a laboratory position as a research assistant in the Department of Hormone Research at Manchester's Christie Cancer Hospital Whilst there, she concentrated on estrogen-dependent breast cancer for two years before joining the University of Manchester to study for her doctorate.
In 1961, Brodie received her Ph.D. in chemical pathology, which focussed primarily on the hormone aldosterone from the University of Manchester.
Career, 1962–2016
As a result of her doctorate, she was awarded a National Institutes of Health sponsored, 1-year post-doctoral training fellowship, at Clark University and the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. She researched at Worcester Foundation between 1962 and 1979. There, she worked initially on the oral contraceptive usage of aldosterone, alongside a number of scientists. This included Harry Brodie, whom she married in 1964, and Mika Hayano, who died of breast cancer in her 40s. Over the next few years, Brodie took time away from her work when her two sons, Mark and John Hartley Brodie (1970–2006) were born.
When Brodie returned to work in 1971, she joined her husband's lab as staff scientist, moving into breast cancer research, especially its link with estrogen and an enzyme that produces it, aromatase. They developed several steroidal aromatase inhibitors, she focused on 4-OHA.
In 1979, she moved to Maryland, encouraged by Cornelia Channing to join the University of Maryland School of Medicine, first as an associate professor. Later she became Professor of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics along with an appointment in the Department of Physiology and a researcher role in the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center. She presented a paper on her aromatase inhibitors at a Rome conference in 1980, which led to collaboration with Charles Coombes, a British oncologist to start clinical trials on the inhibitor–4-hydroxyandrostenedione (4-OHA) in Royal Marsden Hospital. Coombes gave 4-OHA to 11 women in 1982, with 4 seeing a dramatic improvement. The results were encouraging enough that Novartis was willing to fund further clinical trials. 4-OHA, named Formestane, was the first aromatase inhibitor used on breast cancer patients and proved to be a significant improvement on tamoxifen, the standard cancer drug used to treat estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women. The drug was first marketed in 1994.
In 2005, Brodie received the prestigious Kettering Prize, the first woman to receive the award, though she did not know she had been nominated. At the time, she was on the editorial board of multiple professional journals, reviewed grant applications for NIH had published over 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and was a member of the integration for the U.S. Army Department of Defense Army Breast Cancer Program. In 2006, her son John, died from accidental drowning.
In 2016, she officially retired from UM.
Personal life and death
According to co workers Brodie "was kind and generous but not weak. She knew how to stand up for herself and push her own agenda." She "had a steely determination combined with a positive can-do attitude." Brodie s hobbies were horseback riding, hiking and gardening. She never intended to retire, and collaborated with Vincent Njar on aromatase inhibitors in prostate cancer until she died, age 82 on 7 June 2017 at home in Fulton, Maryland from complications due to Parkinson's disease.