When Was Chemotherapy First Used?

Although "chemotherapy" can refer to any drug used to treat an illness, the vast majority of people associate the term with a class of medicines use to treat cancer and tumors. There are over 100 different chemotherapy or bio-therapy drugs in use as of 2009. Chemotherapy medications come in pill form as well as topical creams; they can also be injected into the veins or directly into a tumor if necessary. The common characteristic of all of these types of chemotherapy medications is their cell-destroying properties. Chemotherapy interferes with the reproduction of cells, preventing the cells from reproducing to create duplicate or new cells.

First Use

• Chemotherapy as a concept dates back to World War II, although this original form was not related to cancer treatment or used as a medicine. During a World War II military operation, a number of people were exposed to mustard gas. In subsequent tests, those who were exposed to the gas were found to have lower than normal white blood cell counts. Thus, mustard gas was viewed as a cell-destroying agent.

The First Chemotherapy Cancer Treatment

• Doctors observed the properties of mustard gas and their effects during the 1940's and speculated that if mustard gas destroyed white blood cells, which were cells that reproduced frequently, the gas might also destroy cancer cells since cancer cells also reproduce frequently. With this idea in mind, several patients with advanced lymphoma were injected intravenously with mustard gas. These patients improved dramatically, albeit temporarily, and thus the modern idea of chemotherapy was born.

Anti-folates

• Inspired by the experiments of the 1940's, Dr. Sidney Farber began a clinical investigation into the effects of blocking folates (naturally occuring, water soluble B vitamins). Farber administered an anti-folate called AMT to children with leukemia, and discovered that AMT was able to block the cell's access to folates which they need to grow and survive. Using this treatment, Farber achieved temporary remission in children with leukemia. This success was the earliest form of anti-metabolic chemotherapy used to destroy cancer cells.

6-Mercaptopurine

• In 1984, Farber and Burchenal, a physician at Sloan Kettering, began to further explore the connection between folates and cancer cells. Purines were able to prevent cells from dividing by interrupting the division process. As a result of this testing, Farber and Burchenal pioneered 6-Mercaptopurine, a substance which resembles a natural purine and prevents cells from dividing (reproducing). This drug is still in use as of 2009.

Combination Chemotherapy

• While the use of chemotherapy drugs was a widely accepted practice as early as 1955, when the government created the National Cancer Chemotherapy Service Center, widespread use of combinations of different chemotherapy drugs did not become accepted until the 1960's.
  In the 1960's and 1970's, doctors first began experimenting with a combination of different chemotherapy medications in the treatment of cancer. Doctors found that by combining chemicals that interfere with cell growth, childhood leukemia and Hodgkin's disease could be cured. This changed the medical attitude toward chemotherapy, began the process of discovery and combination that still exists to this day.