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Chemotherapy and the war on cancer

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 5, pages 65–72 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

The era of chemotherapy began in the 1940s with the first uses of nitrogen mustards and antifolate drugs. Cancer drug development since then has transformed from a low-budget, government-supported research effort to a high-stakes, multi-billion dollar industry. The targeted-therapy revolution has arrived, but the principles and limitations of chemotherapy discovered by the early researchers still apply. This article chronicles the history of modern chemotherapy and identifies remaining challenges for the next generation of researchers.

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Figure 1: Sydney Farber working at his microscope.
Figure 2: Mentor, Joe Bertino, and student, Bruce Chabner, at Yale University in 1970 with Barbara Morrison.
Figure 3: Mechanism of action of methotrexate.
Figure 4: The 'gang of five'.
Figure 5: Number of approved new molecules for the treatment of cancer by the Food and Drug Administration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02114, Massachusetts, USA

    Bruce A. Chabner & Thomas G. Roberts Jr

Authors
  1. Bruce A. Chabner
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  2. Thomas G. Roberts Jr
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bruce A. Chabner.

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Competing interests

Bruce Chabner is a board member of Kosan Biosciences (Hayward, California) and Oncotech (Tustin, California). He is also on the Scientific Advisory Board of Cell Genesys (South San Francisco, California) and Adherex Technologies Inc. (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina), and a consultant for PharmaMar (Cambridge, Massachussets).

Related links

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DATABASES

Entrez Gene

ABL

BCR

EGFR

HRAS

KIT

KRAS

PDGFRβ

VHL

National Cancer Institute

acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

acute myeloid leukaemia

bladder cancer

breast cancer

chronic myeloid leukaemia

colon cancer

head and neck cancer

Hodgkin's lymphoma

non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

non-small-cell lung cancer

ovarian cancer

testicular cancer

FURTHER INFORMATION

Developmental Therapeutics Program NCI/NIH

FDA's Oncology Tools web site (including approval statistics)

NCI's Cancer Therapy Evaluate Program

NCI's Closing in on Cancer web site

The American Cancer Society History of Cancer web site

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Chabner, B., Roberts, T. Chemotherapy and the war on cancer. Nat Rev Cancer 5, 65–72 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1529

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