subject: History of Chemotherapy - StudentScholarships.org [print this page] Author: Drew Backley Author: Drew Backley
I think that chemotherapy is the most important invention in the 20th century because it has been used to treat many types of cancer and other diseases like tuberculosis. Chemotherapy has given hope to people who have cancer or know someone with cancer; it also gives us all hope of further developments that could eventually wipe out cancer entirely.
Before chemotherapy was invented, cancer was treated by a series of painful surgeries that removed the cancerous body parts; nothing was done to prevent the cancer from returning, so it would return and the surgeries were continued until there was nothing left to be done and the patient would succumb to the illness. Fortunately, chemotherapy was discovered by accident in the 1940s when mustard gas was being tested during World War II. It was found that the test subjects had low white blood cell counts. Further testing was done on animals and people with Lymphoma. The results were positive but temporary, but fortunately they lead to the development of the type of chemotherapy used today.
Chemotherapy arrests the spread of cancerous cells and it also can prevent the return of cancer after surgery. Chemotherapy has saved the lives of Robert de Niro, Elizabeth Taylor, Lance Armstrong, Gene Wilder, and countless other people who are unknown to the public but are of immeasurable importance to their friends and families.
Although chemotherapy is a painful process, it is worth it when the results are successful and the cancer-free patients return to their lives with a renewed value of life.
In the next fifty years, I believe that we will make enormous progress in the understanding of cancer and how to treat it; but for now I think the progress we have made is important and that is why I believe chemotherapy is the most important invention of the 20th century.About the Author:
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