Cancer In The 1950s

The daily killer of over twenty thousand people and over 7.3 million people a year has heavily affected families all over the world for centuries. Because this disease has over 100 types and has proven lethal for so many men, women, and children everywhere, cancer has earned the the title of being the number one cause of death in the United States and one of the top causes of death in the world as a whole. Many scientists and doctors have tried to solve the medical puzzle that is cancer, but no definite cure has been discovered. However, tons of progress has been made and treatments have changed drastically since before 1950 compared to today. (Paddock 2007) Before 1950, medical researchers had a much smaller understanding of this disease than they do today. In the 15th century, “Scientists like Galileo and Newton began to use the scientific method, which

In 1953, the first complete cure of a solid human tumor was performed through the use of chemotherapy and in 1958, combination chemotherapy made its way into the world with the help of certain drugs that “can induce partial and complete remissions and prolong survival in children and adults with acute leukemia.”(National Cancer Institute, 2015) In 1985, two types of HPV were linked to cervical cancers in women and treatments were able to be made through vaccinations because of this discovery. Also in 1995, the BRCA2 tumor suppressor gene was cloned, thus providing further information and treatment for breast cancer in men and women. In 2010, the FDA approves of the first “cancer treatment vaccine that is made using a patient's own immune system cells (dendritic cells), for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer that no longer responds to hormonal therapy.”(National Cancer Institute, 2015) and in 2014 researchers began studying the DNA in cancer and further relating cancer to