History of leukemia

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The first-time leukemia was mentioned was in 1847 by Dr. Rudolf Virchow, a German politician whose extensive interests in cell biology, anthropology and pathology led to various important discoveries. Even though Dr. Rudolf’s name is recorded in the NEW York Times, and featured in late 19th Century, his discovery of the disease (Leukemia) was not mentioned until 22nd February 1970 when Dr. Lawrence K. Altman mentioned him in an article. However, that was not the first-time Leukemia was stated in writing. That took place on 6th December 1899, when Major Samuel Armstrong, a surgeon of the 32nd Infantry passed away. The cause of the death was terms as leukemia (Bakalar, 2014).

By the year 1913, different types of the disease were discovered, although no treatment had been found for any. On 2nd December 1913, the New York Times paper stated the disease in a report when a Cornell student died and described it as a “suffering from a grave blood disease described by physicians as acute lymphatic leukemia”. At the same time came the first mention of attempts to treat leukemia, where a blood transfusion was carried out from the patient’s brother. This treatment failed.

The next treatment that did not succeed was a radium conducted on 3rd May, 1915, where The New York Times reported that although the method had had been successful, but patients could succumb to the poisons released into the system. Still, this was the first-time radio therapy as a treatment method was mentioned, and radio therapy remains one of the treatments for Leukemia. There are two possible ways in which radiation therapy can be administered (Bakalar, 2014). For some patients, the physician may aim the radiation at one specific area of the body where leukemia cells are believed to have collected, for instance testicles or spleen. In other cases, as stated by Bakalar (2014), patients may receive radiation directed to entire body and this second method is usually administered before a bone marrow transplant.

The disease started gaining significance by getting public recognition in the late 1920s. for instance the New York Times paper on their 5th March 1927 writing mentioned a Dutch gentleman who had offered a lot of money for anyone who could discover the treatment for Leukemia. On 3rd April 1934, the disease was mentioned in another article, the article stated the death of 4-year old girl from a disease described as “an overabundance of white corpuscle in the blood”. The article furthered the description by stating that the disease was had infrequent cure.

Throughout the year 1930s, the disease become more rampant and started killing many people and without a cure, it was inevitable death. The disease was often in relation to heroic blood donations and transfusions in ultimately fruitless efforts to cure it. Currently, more than a century later, The New York Times reported that Leukemia treatment is complex, entailing the skills of various specialists. The many types of the disease can be effectively treated, and at times fully healed, with chemotherapy, stem cell transplants and biological treatments that improve the body’s immune system (Bakalar, 2014).

One of the cure, historically, as mentioned by Bakalar (2014) among the former treatments of the disease was arsenic. According to Waxman and Anderson (2001), this treatment method was mentioned in ancient Ramayana of India which was used by Hippocrates who named leukemia as ‘carcinos’ for crab. Later in the 18th century, Thomas Fowler formed what was called “Fowler’s Solution’ in which he combined arsenic trioxide with potassium bicarbonate. This by then was considered the standard procedure for treating leukemia and the method was used until 20th century. However, Waxman and Anderson (2001) mention that with the introduction of radiation therapy, arsenic method was dropped. In 1865, Lissauer (German physician) used “Fowler’s Solution” to cure chronic myelocytic leukemia.

The other treatment for leukemia discovered in the 20th century was radiation therapy. In 20th century the disease was considered incurable and chronic. The radiation therapy in 1897 showed that x-rays could decrease the tumor size. It was discovered by when radiation therapy could be administered every day for several weeks, this would significantly enhance therapeutic response.

The other traditional cure introduced in the Second world war was chemotherapy (Bakalar, 2014). This later become one of the significant treatment methods. Chemotherapy was developed from an agent chemical warfare used by the Germans during second world war, mustard gas, which attacks quickly and divides white blood cells. Later, the other treatment method which has been introduced in by the use of DNA. This was introduced in later 20th century and was discovered by James Watson and Francis Crick. DNA gave a better understating of how leukemia spread and answered some concerns of others.

References

Waxman S, and Anderson KC (2001) History of the Development of Arsenic Derivatives in

Cancer Therapy. The Oncologist 6:3-10.

BAKALAR, N., (2014). Leukemia, 1899. History of battle against leukemia. New York

Times, published JUNE 4, 2012.