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Basic Information About Chemotherapy

History Of Chemotherapy

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© American Cancer Society 2010

The word chemotherapy was once used to mean any medicine used to treat any disease. Even taking an aspirin was described as chemotherapy. Today, chemotherapy, or "chemo" for short, most often means taking certain types of medicines (drugs) to treat cancer.

The first drug used for cancer chemotherapy did not start out as a medicine. Mustard gas was used as a chemical warfare agent during World War I and was studied further during World War II. During a military operation in World War II, a group of people were accidentally exposed to mustard gas and were later found to have very low white blood cell counts. Doctors reasoned that an agent that damaged the rapidly growing white blood cells might have a similar effect on cancer. Therefore, in the 1940s, several patients with advanced lymphomas (cancers of certain white blood cells) were given the drug by vein, rather than by breathing the irritating gas. Their improvement, although temporary, was remarkable. That experience led researchers to look for other substances that might have similar effects against cancer. As a result, many other drugs have been developed.


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