- AACI 2022 annual meeting keynote on the role of mustard gas in cancer research
By Association of American Cancer Institutes | July 13, 2023
By the end of World War I, the use of chemical weapons had resulted in over one million casualties on both sides, including many disabled and wounded. Through a series of unintended events, these chemical weapons set in motion discoveries that led to the development of chemotherapy.
Following the war, medical researchers noticed that mustard gas destroyed lymphatic tissue and bone marrow, leading them to experiment with applying nitrogen mustard, a derivative of mustard gas, to shrink tumors in mice.
By the beginning of World War II in the early 1940s, the first therapeutic experiments with the intravenous use of mustard agents were conducted in patients with cancer, providing temporary benefit. Several drugs derived from mustard agents are still used today to treat certain forms of cancer.
Matthew Naylor, PhD, president and CEO of the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, MO, described these discoveries and their impact on modern cancer treatment during the opening keynote at the 2022 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting.
A video of the presentation appears on the Cancer History Project.
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center explores the history of medical physics in a podcast
- 50th Anniversary of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center Podcast Series – Medical Physics
By Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center | July 12, 2023
In this podcast celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Akila Viswanathan, director of Radiation Oncology at Johns Hopkins, speaks to John Wong, professor emeritus and former director of medical physics, about the 20th Anniversary of the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences at Johns Hopkins and the significant scientific achievements he has overseen throughout his tenure.
This column features the latest posts to the Cancer History Project by our growing list of contributors.
The Cancer History Project is a free, web-based, collaborative resource intended to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act and designed to continue in perpetuity. The objective is to assemble a robust collection of historical documents and make them freely available.
Access to the Cancer History Project is open to the public at CancerHistoryProject.com. You can also follow us on Twitter at @CancerHistProj, or follow our podcast.
Is your institution a contributor to the Cancer History Project? Eligible institutions include cancer centers, advocacy groups, professional societies, pharmaceutical companies, and key organizations in oncology.
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