CHEMOTHERAPY

WHAT IS CHEMO?

• Drug treatments for cancer that stop cancer cell's ability to grow and divide.
• Circulate in bloodstream and directly damage the cells that are actively growing.
• Cancer cells generally grow and divide faster than normal cells.
• This makes chemo more effective against cancer cells than normal cells. However still damage.
• More than 100 drugs are available to treat cancer.

SURGERY-FIRST CANCER TREATMENT

• Oldest known cancer surgery around 1600 BC in Ancient Egypt.
• Surgery largely unsuccessful due to poor hygiene and most patients died.
• Surgery improved after asepsis in the 19th century, higher survival.
• 1846-Anesthesia allowed surgery to take off.
• "Cancer operations" later designed to remove tumor and lymph nodes.

RADIATION

• Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radiation in the late 1800s.
• First non-surgical treatment for cancer.
• Cancer treatment became multidisciplinary (Surgeons and Radiologists)
• Japanese atomic bombing victims bone marrow destroyed.
• Led to use of radiation treatment for leukemia and bone marrow transplants.

HISTORY OF CHEMO

• Era of chemo began in the 1940s with the first use of nitrogen mustards and folic acid drugs.
• Nitrogen mustard, a chemical warfare agent, discovered as an effective treatment for cancer.
• First used to treat lymphoma.
• Then antifolates developed post WWII. Blocked a chemical needed for DNA replication.
• Can cure or control the cancer growth.

POST-CHEMO

• Mortality rates slowly declining for years, as well as time alive post diagnosis.
• Discovery that certain toxic chemicals administered in combination can cure certain cancers.
• Ranks as one of the greatest in modern medicine
• Target therapy specific targeted molecules needed for carcinogenesis and tumor growth
• Testicular cancer, Hodgkin disease, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and some leukemias treatable.