Chemotherapy is the treatment of disease, most often cancer, using chemical substances that kill or slow the growth of abnormal cells. Its origin is usually traced to the observation, following the accidental exposure of servicemen to nitrogen mustard gas in 1943, that the compound suppressed white blood cell production, which researchers at Yale then investigated as a possible treatment for lymphoma. This atlas describes the history of the treatment class and is not medical advice.
Facts
FAQs
Why does chemotherapy cause side effects such as hair loss?
Because the drugs also harm fast-dividing healthy cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles.
Many of chemotherapy's side effects come from damage to normal cells that divide rapidly and are therefore sensitive to anti-mitotic drugs, including cells in the bone marrow, the digestive tract and the hair follicles. The most common results are myelosuppression, a decreased production of blood cells that also weakens immunity, mucositis, an inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract, and alopecia, which is hair loss. This atlas describes the history of the treatment and is not medical advice.
Connections
Associated With
Long-Form Articles
Treats
Source The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of HumanityRoy Porter
Chemotherapy is a standard treatment for advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer.
Chemotherapy (e.g. ABVD regimen) is the standard treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma.
Chemotherapy is a standard treatment modality for mesothelioma.
Chemotherapy is a standard treatment modality for multiple myeloma, alongside the already-live oncology treatments.
Chemotherapy is standard treatment for osteosarcoma, typically combined with surgery.
Chemotherapy is standard adjuvant/palliative treatment for stomach cancer.
Chemotherapy is standard treatment for testicular cancer, especially after orchiectomy.
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundation
2. A History of Medicine
Lois N. Magner, CRC Press
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Chemotherapy (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemotherapy, lead section
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard regimen.
Lead, first sentence
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard regimen.
View the Source The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity
Roy Porter, W. W. Norton and Company, 1997Treats: Cancer
Essays About This Entity (1 essay)
Cisplatin Through Its DNA Mechanism, Not Its Cancer List
Chemotherapy: the wider therapy class the essay ties cisplatin to through its DNA-crosslinking mechanism rather than its list of treated cancers.
Read the EssayReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.