History of cancer chemotherapy

Six bottles of chemotherapeutic agents for injection, as marketed in the United States c. 1993. Clockwise from center: bleomycin, an antitumor antibiotic; vincristine, a spindle poison; dacarbazine, an alkylating agent; cyclophosphamide, a nitrogen mustard; doxorubicin, an anthracycline; and etoposide, a topoisomerase inhibitor.

The era of cancer chemotherapy began in the 1940s with the first use of nitrogen mustards and folic acid antagonist drugs. The targeted therapy revolution has arrived, but many of the principles and limitations of chemotherapy discovered by the early researchers still apply.


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