JimDixon t1_iufcyyc wrote
Chemotherapy originally meant treatment of disease-- any kind of disease-- with chemicals, i.e. drugs. It was a commonplace thing, but most people were unfamiliar with the word. At first, surgery was the only known effective treatment for cancer, and later, radiation. Chemotherapy for cancer came last. When people first heard about it, it was, for most of them, the first time they heard the word chemotherapy, so it became associated in the public mind with cancer.
Rc72 OP t1_iuhu01l wrote
AFAIK the term “chemotherapy” wasn’t used before cancer chemotherapy, and it was adopted as an analogous construction to “radiotherapy”. Just as in cancer radiotherapy the radiation is targeted to destroy the cancerous cells, in cancer chemotherapy those cells are “chemically targeted” for destruction. The insight that cancerous cells could be more vulnerable than non-cancerous cells to some chemicals was gained in the aftermath of the Bari disaster, by the military surgeon reporting the effects of mustard gas on the sailors.
bdesign7 t1_iuhxjwz wrote
JimDixon t1_iui7m1k wrote
I found these items unrelated to cancer:
“Progress in Chemotherapy and the Treatment of Syphilis,” journal title, 1924.
“Chemotherapy of a New Group of Arsenical Compounds…,” master’s thesis, 1924.
“Experimental Chemotherapy in Malaria,” article, 1941.
“Ineffective Penicillin Chemotherapy of Arthritic Rats….,” article, 1943.
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