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Paulo Nuno Martins
Interuniversity Center for History of Science and Technology, New University of Lisbon, Portugal
ISSN: 2320- 8147
A CONCISE HISTORY ON CHEMOTHERAPY
Paulo Nuno Martins
Interuniversity Center for History of Science and Technology, New University of Lisbon,
A R T I C L E I N F O
Article History:
Received 4th December, 2019
Received in revised form 25th
January, 2019
Accepted 23rd February, 2019
Published online 28th March, 2019
Key words:
A concise history on chemotherapy, types of
chemotherapy regimens, types of chemotherapy
treatments.
INTRODUCTION
The main objective of this brief essay is to describe a
concise history of the discovery and evolution of
chemotherapy over time. There are references to the
existence of cancer in ancient Persia, and the search for a
rudimentary chemotherapy cure has begun in the
nineteenth century, although it was only in the 1960's that
this method became indispensable in the treatment of
cancer [1].
Chemotherapy is a therapy that uses chemical agents to
cure or control some diseases, such as mental illness or
kill malignant cancer cells. There are several techniques of
chemotherapy that might be prescribed by an oncologist
physician with the intention
of curing, being adjuvant or
only palliative. In this regard, I
have to mention that
alongside the technical procedure for curing cancer,
physicians have sought to ensure the quality of life of
patients due to side effects of chemotherapy treatment,
such as, hair loss, nausea, vomiting [2].
METHODS
In this brief essay on the concise history of chemotherapy,
I collected and analyzed the main scientific books and
technical articles on this research area that are available in
academic libraries in order to
be useful to the reader who
intends to have a succinct idea on this subject, but
maintaining the scientific of my research. Thus, I selected
a sample composed of the 20 most important items on this
International Journal of Current Medical Sciences
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CURRENT MEDICAL SCIENCES
Copyright © Paulo Nuno Martins 201
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction
the original work is properly cited.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10
.
Paulo Nuno Martins
Interuniversity Center for History of Science and Technology, New University of Lisbon, Portugal
Available online at
http://journalijcmes.com
A CONCISE HISTORY ON CHEMOTHERAPY
Interuniversity Center for History of Science and Technology, New University of Lisbon,
Portugal
A B S T R A C T
Chemotherapy is a therapy used for the treatment of cancer, particularly since
the 1940s. This essay aims to be a contribution to the study of this subject,
namely in the description
of its history, indicating the main types of
and treatments in chemotherapy.
A concise history on chemotherapy, types of
chemotherapy regimens, types of chemotherapy
The main objective of this brief essay is to describe a
concise history of the discovery and evolution of
chemotherapy over time. There are references to the
existence of cancer in ancient Persia, and the search for a
rudimentary chemotherapy cure has begun in the
nineteenth century, although it was only in the 1960's that
this method became indispensable in the treatment of
Chemotherapy is a therapy that uses chemical agents to
cure or control some diseases, such as mental illness or
kill malignant cancer cells. There are several techniques of
chemotherapy that might be prescribed by an oncologist
of curing, being adjuvant or
have to mention that
alongside the technical procedure for curing cancer,
physicians have sought to ensure the quality of life of
patients due to side effects of chemotherapy treatment,
In this brief essay on the concise history of chemotherapy,
I collected and analyzed the main scientific books and
technical articles on this research area that are available in
be useful to the reader who
intends to have a succinct idea on this subject, but
maintaining the scientific of my research. Thus, I selected
a sample composed of the 20 most important items on this
topic, based on the "impact factor" of the article, and th
"reference" books on the subject.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of my research work on the concise history of
chemotherapy lead me to say that around 1910, the word
“chemotherapy” was coined by Paul Ehrlich who aimed to
treat syphilis. Later, this term was used as a cancer
treatment technique through chemic
regard, I have to mention that the use of animal models in
the early period of cancer drug development is a milestone
in the history of chemotherapy. In fact, in the 1910s
Georges Clowes performed
the pioneering transplantable
tumor in rodents that lead
to the development of several
model systems that
has been used with
the fight against cancer.
So, Furth and colleagues
published an article on the mechanism of unfoldment of
tran
smission of leukemia in mice, while Charles Huggins
and his team studied the relationship between level of
androgen and the occurrence of prostate cancer in dogs
[4].
On the other hand, during World War II, it was found that
people exposed to nitrogen mu
number of white blood cells which led some researchers,
such as Alfred Gilman and Louis Goodman to study the
therapeutic effects of nitrogen mustard agents in the
treatment of lymphomas in rabbits and a mouse [5]. Thus,
Gilman and Go
odman showed their data to surgeon Gustaf
Lindskog
who worked together to provide a cancer patient
International Journal of Current Medical Sciences
- Vol.
9, Issue, 03(A), pp.
494
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CURRENT MEDICAL SCIENCES
Case Report
2019, This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction
.
24327/ijcmes2019.09010064
http://journalijcmes.com
Chemotherapy is a therapy used for the treatment of cancer, particularly since
the 1940s. This essay aims to be a contribution to the study of this subject,
of its history, indicating the main types of
regimens
topic, based on the "impact factor" of the article, and th
e
"reference" books on the subject.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of my research work on the concise history of
chemotherapy lead me to say that around 1910, the word
“chemotherapy” was coined by Paul Ehrlich who aimed to
treat syphilis. Later, this term was used as a cancer
treatment technique through chemic
al agents [3].In this
regard, I have to mention that the use of animal models in
the early period of cancer drug development is a milestone
in the history of chemotherapy. In fact, in the 1910s
the pioneering transplantable
to the development of several
has been used with
chemical agents in
So, Furth and colleagues
published an article on the mechanism of unfoldment of
smission of leukemia in mice, while Charles Huggins
and his team studied the relationship between level of
androgen and the occurrence of prostate cancer in dogs
On the other hand, during World War II, it was found that
people exposed to nitrogen mu
stard have reduced the
number of white blood cells which led some researchers,
such as Alfred Gilman and Louis Goodman to study the
therapeutic effects of nitrogen mustard agents in the
treatment of lymphomas in rabbits and a mouse [5]. Thus,
odman showed their data to surgeon Gustaf
who worked together to provide a cancer patient
494
-496, March, 2019
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CURRENT MEDICAL SCIENCES
Case Report
access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
in any medium, provided
International Journal of Current Medical Sciences- Vol. 9, Issue,03(A), pp. 494-496, Maech, 2019
495 | P a g e
with the first experimental chemotherapy [6]. In 1946,
experimental results of this chemotherapy were published
and showed that tumors could be reduced in size, although
the inability of mustard gas to produce lasting remissions
has led to some pessimism during the 1950s [7].Most
positively, in 1948, Farber and his colleagues developed
antifolate compounds (known as methotrexate) that were
tested in children with leukemia, who had shown a
remission of their disease after this treatment [8].In this
regard, I have to mention that the first description of the
first tumor to be effectively cured was actually performed
by Min Chiu Li, in 1958 [9].
In the 1960s, a major milestone occurred in the cure of
cancer through the combination of several drugs in the
chemotherapy regimen, namely the program known as
VAMP (vincristine, amethopterin, 6-mercapto-purine,
prednisone) [10], followed by MOMP (nitrogen mustard,
vincristine, methotrexate, prednisone) and MOPP
(nitrogen mustard, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone)
which were developed by pioneering physicians Frei,
Freireich, DeVita, Moxley, among others [11] who have
allowed a more effective treatment of cancer, since that
time. Another success achieved in this decade was the
understanding of the relationship between the kinetics of
cancer cells and the mechanisms of action of different
chemotherapeutic agents [12]. Indeed, the
chemotherapeutic drugs could be classified according to
the phase cell cycle in which they are active. For example,
there are agents that have a linear dose response curve
with respect to the cell cycle-phase (e.g. alkylating
agents), while there are agents whose cell ability killing
will not increase with further increase in drug dosage. So,
it has been developed several types of chemotherapy
regimens, namely, single-agent therapy (in the 1940s and
1950s, it started to be used with nitrogen mustard),
combined therapy(in the 1960s, it started to be used with
VAMP, MOMP and MOPP),adjuvant therapy (in the
1970s, it started to be used with L-PAM, CMF together
with surgery and/or radiotherapy) [13] and targeted
chemotherapy (in the 1980s and 1990s, it started to be
used with Monoclonal Antibodies).
Furthermore, I have to mention the name of various types
of chemotherapy treatments that might be prescribed by
the physician to the oncological patient, namely Induction
(high doses of drugs for cancer remission), Consolidation
(repetition of the previous treatment to ensure total cancer
remission), Intensification (application of a final treatment
after cancer remission to ensure complete success),
Maintenance (maintain chemotherapy treatments over
time after cancer remission), Salvage (performed when
there was no success with other treatments), Palliative
(prolong the life of an oncological patient with no hope of
cure)[14].
On the other hand, in the 1970s, another chemotherapy
regimen was used as adjuvant to surgery and/or
radiotherapy in order to obtain better results in relation to
the previous regimes, and very suitable for several types
of cancer or metastases. Examples of application of
adjuvant chemotherapy programs are the cases of L-PAM
(L-phenylalanine mustard) and CMF (cyclophosphamide,
methotrexate, 5-flurouracil) [15] performed by pioneering
physicians Bernard Fischer, Paul Carbone, Gianni
Bonadonna, among others [16].
From the 1980s to the 1990s, targeted chemotherapy using
monoclonal antibodies (Mabs), such as Bcr-Abi (tyrosine
kinase inhibitor) was developed, and this treatment
regimen is known as the new adjuvant chemotherapy. In
fact, this chemotherapy regimen has allowed the increase
of the success rate or even the total remission in the
treatment of certain types of cancer, such as ovaries,
lymphoblastic and myelogenous leukemias,
gastrointestinal, among others [17]. In this regard, I have
to mention that since the year 2000 many
chemotherapeutic drugs have been developed, such as
Topotecan, Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin,
Bandamustime which have a specific profile compared to
other alkylating agents in chemotherapy treatment [18].
CONCLUSIONS
As a summary of this essay, I want to mention that
chemotherapy has proven to be increasingly an effective
way to treat cancer (cure or palliative) as a complementary
method to radiotherapy and/or surgery [19].Furthermore,
early diagnosis and prevention has also been an effective
means of combating cancer because it is known that some
cancers can be prevented through proper diet, namely,
avoid red meat, sugars tobacco and simultaneously
promote the practice of physical exercise [20]. All these
factors combined together have made fighting cancer
more effective.
References
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A Biography of Cancer. Simon&Schuster.
2. Pazdur, R. 2009. Cancer Management: A
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3. Papac, R. 2001. Origins of cancer therapy.Yale
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4. ElBagoury, M. and Koth, M. 2018. Chemotherapy
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5. Gilman, A. and Goodman, L. 2011. The
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6. Karnofsky, D. and Burchenal, J. and Ormsler, R.
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7. Gilman, A. 1946. Symposium on advances in
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aminopteroyl-glutamic acid (aminopterin).New
England Journal of Medicine, 238: 787-793.
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