Chemotherapy in the treatment of malignant disease.

Abstract

The object of this symposium is to bring together the existing knowledge on the chemotherapeutic treatment of the idiopathic reticuloses and the reticulum cell sarcomas. It has been decided to omit the leukæmias from the discussion and, while the term chemotherapy could be held to include all forms of treatment other than surgery and radiotherapy, it is not proposed to consider the use of such agents as radioactive isotopes, bacterial toxins, cortisone and other hormones. Much has already been written about the various chemotherapeutic compounds and the very full accounts available in the literature need not be repeated here. A brief review of the various agents may, however, be helpful to those less familiar with this relatively new method of attack on a group of diseases which continue to present, to all concerned, many disappointments. The earliest use of chemical substances in the treatment of malignant disease dates back to 1865, when arsenic was introduced for the treatment of leukæmias. Benzol was similarly employed in the earlier part of this century, but both preparations have now been abandoned because of their toxic effects and because they were found to be inferior to radiotherapy. In 1942 the intravenous nitrogen mustards were introduced for the treatment of leukæmia. Their possible value followed the observations made on casualties from mustard gas poisoning in the First World War.