CANCER - Part I

'The Emperor of All Maladies' written by Siddhartha Mukherjee, an American physician of Indian origin, is an extraordinary book. It has won Pulitzer prize for best non-fiction.

The book claims to describe the history of cancer. However, the author takes us through the history of all major advancements in medical science. Though I have read in my text books about history of some pioneer drugs, there are plenty of interesting anecdotes in this book. Let me share one: Farber, a Bostonian doctor, is the one who pioneered chemotherapy in early 20th century. He used aminopterin to treat leukaemia in children - the first synthetic drug to treat cancer. How did he get this idea? Simple logic! Leukaemia - blood cancer, in general - is an abnormal multiplication of white blood cells. We all know about anaemia. Anaemia is due to the scarcity or insufficient growth of blood cells. 

In 1930s, many women in Bombay suffered due to anaemia because of various reasons including nutrition deficiency. A lady doctor from London conducted research on these women and found that folic acid helped in the growth of blood cells and thus treating anaemia. Farber got clue from this! If folic acid helps the blood cells grow, why can't we stop the growth of abnormal cells with some anti-folic acid (antifolate)? His friend in Boston, Subba Rao (!), who is a synthetic chemist and his roommate, supplied him an antifolate. And that was aminopterin!

Many such interesting matters are scattered throughout this book. However, it flows like a thriller about the treatment of cancer in one of his young patients. Though cancer is known several centuries before Jesus, we are still on crusade against this crab. Hippocrates said in 3rd century BC - "It is better to leave cancer patients untreated". It seems to be applicable till date when I look at recent cancer deaths in my family.