Timeline milestone
A Wartime Chemical Becomes Systemic Cancer Treatment
From How Cancer Treatment Became Personal: From Chemotherapy to Precision Immunotherapy
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Clinical Milestone
A Wartime Chemical Becomes Systemic Cancer Treatment
Doctors used nitrogen mustard to produce temporary tumour regression in lymphoma, establishing that a drug carried through the body could treat cancer.
Surgery and radiation acted locally, but nitrogen mustard showed that chemicals could reach dispersed cancer cells. The responses were temporary and the drug damaged healthy dividing tissue, establishing both the promise and the central toxicity of chemotherapy.
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