LOEB, LEO

LOEB, LEO (1869–1959), pathologist and pioneer in cancer research. Loeb, who was born in Mayen, Germany, immigrated to the United States in 1900 and held a variety of academic and research posts until 1910, when he settled in St. Louis, Missouri. From 1915 to 1937 he was professor of pathology at St. Louis' Washington University. Loeb made significant contributions to cancer research. In a series of experiments on rats and mice, he and his co-workers found that the growth energy of cancer cells may be experimentally decreased and increased. They also showed that hormones may induce cancer in a mouse's mammary gland, vagina, and cervix. They studied growth and retardation factors influencing the thyroid gland. Loeb's papers included studies of blood coagulation and thrombosis, pathology of the circulatory organs, kidneys, and stomach, experimental cell fibrin tissue, old age, and the analysis of cell death. Leo Loeb was the brother of the physiologist and biologist jacques loeb . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S.R. Kagan, Jewish Medicine (1952), 229f. (Suessmann Muntner)