Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment option that uses chemicals to kill cells. It’s particularly effective against microorganisms and cancer cells. When people on the street say “chemotherapy” they’re typically referring to anti neoplastic drugs that are used to treat cancer or a combination of this type of drugs that have been turned into a cytotoxic standardized treatment regiment instead of a targeted therapy.
Although not frequently used, chemotherapy has a non-oncology, or non-cancerous, use. In this sense, the word might be used to describe antibiotics. If we expand the definition to include antibiotics, the first modern use of chemotherapy was performed in 1909. In 1909, Paul Ehrlich used arsphenamine, a compound composed in part of arsenic, to treat syphilis successfully. Later antibacterial chemotherapy treatments included sulfonamides discovered by Domagk and Alexander Fleming’s wonder-drug penicillin.
In addition to treating a variety of bacterial and cancerous diseases, cytostatic chemotherapy agents have been used to varying degrees of success to treat autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis. Additionally, individuals who have received a transplant are also likely to receive some sort of chemotherapy. This is most likely to be an immunosuppressant or DMARD.
The first drug used for cancer chemotherapy was accidentally discovered in the early portion of the 20th century. Mustard gas, a chemical agent widely used in chemical warfare during World War I, was studied further during World War II. During a military operation in World War II, a large number of soldiers were accidentally exposed to mustard gas. When they were later examined by a physician, they were all found to have very low white blood cell counts. White blood cells were known, even then, to reproduce very quickly. Because of this observation, it was thought that maybe a chemical which damaged the production of white blood cells could also damage cancer cells enough to kill them and cure a person of cancer.
Later on in the 1940s, a number of people who had advanced lymphomas (cancers of certain specific white blood cells) were given an injection of the active agent in mustard gas, rather than being permitted to inhale the irritating gas. While the treatment didn’t result in a complete cure, it did result in at least temporary, remarkable improvement.
