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Who Discovered Chemotherapy?

Paul Ehrlich (1854 to 1915), a German biologist, is considered the father of chemotherapy for his work in the field of immunology and chemotherapy.
In 1940 the concept of treating cancer with chemotherapy was an accidental discovery observed during the autopsy of people exposed to mustard gas. A remarkable suppression of lymphoid and myeloid cells occurred.

  1. Treatment Investigation

    • The U. S. Department of Defense recruited pharmacologists Louis S. Goodman and Alfred Gilman to investigate mustard gas to treat cancer. The results of their research studies were successful.

    The Evolution of Chemotherapy

    • Sidney Faber, a Harvard pathologist, did further studies and successfully treated leukemia in children with folic acid in collaboration with Joseph Burchenal, George Hitchings and Gertude Elion.

    Effects

    • Today over 50 percent of patients diagnosed with cancer get chemotherapy treatment.

    Historical Significance

    • In 1955 U.S. Congress formulated the National Cancer Chemotherapy Service Center, the first federal program to encourage drug discovery for cancer.

    Benefits

    • According to the National Cancer Institute since 1990, cancer death rates in the United States have dropped each year due to cancer research.

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