Throwback Thursday: Cancer Treatments of the Past

Patient receiving radiation therapy. Photographer unknown.
From G. Terry Sharrer, Ph.D. National Museum of American History.

If you heard the news you had cancer before the 1950s, you knew your life was over. It was extremely rare in those days for someone to be diagnosed with any kind of cancer and think "I'll beat this".

Before the 50s, the most common treatment options for cancer were radiation therapy and surgery. Then, during World War II, military personnel were exposed to mustard gas and were later found to have major toxic changes in their bone marrow. Their white blood cell counts were extremely low when exposed to the gas.

It was believed that an agent that could damage rapidly growing white blood cells might have a similar effect on cancer. So, in the late 1940s, patients with advanced lymphomas were given the gas by vein. Not long after this, nitrogen mustard was used in children with acute leukemias and it began to produce remissions. This drug was the predecessor of methorexate, a chemo agent still in use today. The 1950's is considered the era of chemotherapy and researchers were heavily funded by the Leukemia Society of America (now called the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). You can read more about LLS funding over the years HERE.

Someday, we hope to look back at the year 2015 and say "Wow, remember when people had cancer? So glad that's something of the past." Thank you to all our donors who are making someday TODAY!