Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy

The earliest successes with chemotherapy occurred in blood and lymphatic cancers. By the late 1970s, combinations of drugs helped to cure some patients with testicular and other "solid" tumors.

Since then, adjuvant chemotherapy – providing drugs after cancer surgery to help prevent cancer recurrence – has improved the outlook for patients with common early-stage cancers, including colon, breast and lung cancer. The use of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy – giving drugs before surgery to shrink tumors – is helping patients with cancers once considered inoperable.

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1949

First chemotherapy drug approved for cancer

First chemotherapy drug approved for cancer

Following results of clinical trials conducted in 1946 and 1947, nitrogen mustard is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma. Nitrogen mustard – also known as mustard gas and stockpiled as a weapon in World War II – kills cancer cells by modifying their DNA through a process called alkylation. Its discovery spurs rapid advancements in chemotherapy, and the drug still receives some use today in combination chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma.

1947

First-ever remission of pediatric leukemia

First-ever remission of pediatric leukemia

Badge indicating that research was paid for using federal funds

Sidney Farber, a physician at Children's Hospital Boston, achieves the first partial remission of pediatric leukemia in a 4-year-old girl using the drug aminopterin. He soon documents 10 cases of remission in a landmark scientific paper. Until this time, children with acute leukemia usually died within weeks of being diagnosed. While early remissions prove temporary, they pave the way for therapies that cure thousands of patients in the decades to come, allowing most childhood cancer patients to live long, healthy lives.