William Spencer MacComb graduated from the Buffalo School of Medicine in 1927 and worked for a number of years with Dr. Hayes Martin at Memorial Hospital in New York. He was certified in therapeutic radiology.
William went to Houston to assume the chief position of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, a position he occupied until his retirement. He was a member of the American Radium Society, the Radiological Society of North America, and the James Ewing Society.
William worked with Dr. Gilbert Fletcher, radiotherapist, to produce a book on head and neck tumors that was of a high level of excellence. It was particularly noteworthy for the degree to which it described the natural history and diagnostic features of the disease.