Cancer Treatment & Discovery Timeline
By: Lien Nguyen
1846
The first used of anesthesia in surgery
1846
- On October 16, William T. G. Morton made history by being first in the world to publicly and successfully demonstrate the use of ether anesthesia for surgery.
- Advance gain immediate and widespread attention. Making the modern era of surgery.
1895
X-ray
A german professor, Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, discovered X-ray.
1895
1898
Radium & Polonium
1898
- Marie and Pierre Curie discover the radioactive elements radium and polonium.
- Later the use of radium in cancer treatment begins (effectively treat tumors).
1900- 1950
Radiotherapy
1900-1950
- Radiotherapy was developed as a treatment for cancer
- It's the use of radiation to kill cancer cells or stop them dividing
- It exploded in the U.S.
- The extensive side effects of radium surfaced among worker, include acute and long- term.
1949
Discovery of Chemotherapy
1949
- Chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma
- Nitrogen mustard kills cancer cells by modifying the DNA through a process called alkylation
- Advancement in chemotherapy and the drug still receives some use today with chemotherapy
1971
Radioimmunoassay Created
1971
- A radioimmunoassay made to detect alpha-fetoprotein, a tumor marker often found in higher concentrations in those with liver and testicular cancer
- created for screening purposes by Ruoslahti and Seppala
1979
p53
- p53 is discovered
- the most commonly mutated gene in human cancer
- It is a tumor suppressor gene
1979
1981
Hepatitis B vaccine
1981
- FDA approves the first vaccine against hepatitis B
- Hepatitis B is one of the primary causes of liver cancer
1990
Laparoscopic Surgery
1990
- Laparoscopic surgery allow patients to recover faster and experience less pain without sacrificing effectiveness
- It a surgery that make several small incision and use telescoping equipment to remove tumor
1998
Trastuzumab
1998
- FDA approves trastuzumab for the treatment of women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer
- Later approved for the adjuvant (post-operative) treatment of women with HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer
2017
First gene therapy for cancer
2017
- CAR-T therapy works by genetically modifying the patient’s own immune T cells to target a specific cancer protein and ultimately trigger the cancer cell’s destruction.
- CAR T cells continue to multiply in the patient’s body, so the anticancer effects of CAR T cells persist and can even increase over time.