1811 BURNS, Allan (1781 – 1813)
Observations on the surgical anatomy of the head and neck.
Burns was the first to suggest (p. 31) ligature of the innominate artery. His book describes “Burns’s space”, the fascial space at the suprasternal notch. The first recorded case of chloroma (myeloid sarcoma, granuloc…
GMN 3055 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/832
1844 –1845 DONNÉ, Alfred François (1801 – 1878); FOUCAULT, Jean Bernard Léon (1819 – 1868)
Cours de microscopie. 1 vol. and atlas.
Donne's and Foucault's work was the first biomedical textbook to be illustrated with images made from photomicrographs, in this case daguerreotypes of blood cells. Among its noteworthy images are the first microphotog…
GMN 267.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8743
1845 BENNETT, John Hughes (1812 – 1875)
Case of hypertrophy of the spleen and liver, in which death took place from suppuration of the blood.
First definite description of leukemia as a blood disorder; a case under the care of Sir R. Christison but reported by Bennett. On p. 400 of the same journal is a report of a case by D. Craigie, referring to a patient…
GMN 3061 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3711
1845 VIRCHOW, Rudolf Ludwig Karl (1821 – 1902)
Weisses Blut.
Only six weeks after Bennett, Virchow independently published a report on the necropsy of a case of leukemia. He gave the condition its present name. For translation, see Major, Classic descriptions of disease, 3rd. e…
GMN 3062 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3713
1846 FULLER, Henry William (1820 – 1873)
Particulars of a case in which enormous enlargement of the spleen and liver, together with dilatation of all the blood vessels of the body, were found coincident with a peculiarly altered condition of the blood.
Leukemia diagnosed during life as the result of a blood examination.
GMN 3062.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3714
1856 VIRCHOW, Rudolf Ludwig Karl (1821 – 1902)
Ueber farblose Blutkörperchen und Leukämie. In his Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur wissenschaftlichen Medicin, pp. 147-218.
Includes his paper on “weisses Blut” (see No. 3062) and three later papers on leukemia. See No. 3006.
GMN 3064 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3731
1857 FRIEDREICH, Nikolaus (1825 – 1882)
Ein neuer Fall von Leukämie.
Acute leukemia first described.
GMN 3064.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3716
1870 NEUMANN, Franz Ernst Christian (1834 – 1918)
Ein Fall von Leukämie mit Erkrankung des Knochenmarkes.
Neumann was the first to note changes in the bone marrow in leukemia, and he proposed the term “myelogenous leukemia”.
GMN 3066 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3719
1889 SENN, Nicholas (1844 – 1908)
Experimental surgery.
Senn made important experimental studies on air embolism, introduced a method of diagnosing intestinal perforation by means of insufflation of hydrogen (see No. 3494), and used X-rays in the treatment of leukemia. He …
GMN 5620 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7166
1891 EHRLICH, Paul (1854 – 1915)
Farbenanalytische Untersuchungen zur Histologie und Klinik des Blutes.
Extension of Ehrlich’s work on the differential blood count. By means of his methods of staining blood cells Ehrlich differentiated two types of leukemia, lymphatic and myelogenous.
GMN 3069.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/928
1903 SCHMIDT, Martin Benno (1863 – 1949)
Die Verbreitungswege der Karzinome und die Beziehung generalisierter Sarkome zu den leukämischen Neubildungen.
Schmidt supported the theory of the hematogenous origin of carcinoma metastases.
GMN 2629 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3209
1908 ELLERMANN, Vilhelm (1871 – 1924); BANG, O.
Experimentelle Leukämie bei Hühnern.
Cell-free transmission of fowl leukemia. Ellermann and Bang produced leukemia by means of a filterable agent.
GMN 3079.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3736
1913 RESCHAD, Hassan; SCHILLING-TORGAU, V
Ueber eine neue Leukämie durch echte Uebergangsformen (Splenozytenleukämie) und ihre Bedeutung für die Selbständigkeit dieser Zellen.
Monocytic leukemia reported.
GMN 3082.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3744
1939 LAWRENCE, John Hundale (1904 – 1991); ET AL
Studies on leukemia with the aid of radioactive phosphorus.
Therapeutic use of radioactive isotopes for the treatment of leukemia. John H. Lawrence was the brother of Ernest Orlando Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron; John Lawrence also worked at the Lawrence Berkeley Nationa…
GMN 3098 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3792
1940 LAWRENCE, John Hundale (1904 – 1991)
Nuclear physics and therapy: preliminary report on a new method for the treatment of leukemia and polycythemia.
Radio-phosphorus in treatment of leukemia.
GMN 3099 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3795
1946 PATERSON, Edith (1900 – 1995); ET AL
Leukaemia treated with urethane compared with deep x-ray therapy.
Urethane in treatment of leukemia. With A. Haddow, I. Ap Thomas, and J. M. Watkinson.
GMN 3106 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3811
1946 GOODMAN, Louis Sanford (1906 – 2000); GILMAN, Alfred Zack (1908 – 1984); WINTROBE, Maxwell Myer (1901 – 1986); DAMESHEK, William (1900 – 1969)
Nitrogen mustard therapy. Use of methyl-bis(beta-chloroethyl)amine hydrochloride and tris(beta-chloroethyl)amine hydrochloride for Hodgkin's disease, lymphosarcoma, leukemia and certain allied and miscellaneous disorders.
Widely considered the first uses of chemotherapy for the treatment of malignant diseases.
GMN 10133 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12322
1948 FARBER, Sidney (1903 – 1973)
Temporary remissions in acute leukemia in children produced by folic acid antagonist 4-amethopteroylglutamic acid (aminopterin).
With L. K. Diamond, R. D. Mercer, R. F. Sylvester, and V. A. Wolff.
GMN 2660.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3370
1952 FOLLEY, J. H.; BORGES, T.; YAMASAKI, T.
Incidence of leukemia in survivors of the atom bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Leukemia was the first cancer to be linked with radiation exposure in atomic bomb survivors.
GMN 7764 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9936
1953 BURCHENAL, Joseph Holland (1912 – 2006); ET AL
Clinical evaluation of a new antimetabolite, 6-mercaptopurine, in treatment of leukemia and allied diseases.
Clinical introduction of 6-mercaptopurine in treatment of acute leukemia and chronic myelocytic leukemia. With nine co-authors.
GMN 3108.3 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3826
1953 SHAY, Harry (1898 – ); ET AL
Treatment of leukemia with triethylenethiophosphoramide (Thio-TEPA); preliminary results in experimental and clinical leukemia.
With C. Zarafonetis, N. Smith, I. Woldow and D. C. H. Sun.
GMN 3108.5 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3830
1955 GALTON, David Abraham Goiten (1922 – 2007)
Clinical trials of p-(DI-2-chloroethylamino)-phenylbutyric acid (CB 1348) in malignant lymphoma.
Clinical use of chlorambucil for chronic lymphatic leukemia. With L. G. Israels, J. D. N. Nabarro, and M. Till.
GMN 3108.6 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3831
1956 STEWART, Alice Mary (1906 – 2002); ET AL
Preliminary communication: Malignant disease in childhood and diagnostic irradiation in-utero.
Stewart was one of the earliest to study the effect of prenatal X-rays, later replaced by ultrasound. She found that the children of mothers who received these X-rays were almost twice as likely to develop leukemia or…
GMN 7782 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9954
1957 THOMAS, Edward Donnall (1920 – 2012); LOCHTE, Harry L. Jr.; LU, Wan Ching; ET AL
Intravenous infusion of bone marrow in patients receiving radiation and chemotherapy.
Thomas and colleagues reported the first bone marrow transplants. They described the treatment of six patients with cancers and/leukemia and one patient with multiple myeloma. Three of the patients died, two responded…
GMN 13594 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15873
1968 ELLISON, Rose Ruth (1923 – 2009); ET AL
Arabinosyl cytosine: A useful agent in the treatment of acute leukemia in adults.
Cytosine arabinoside. With J. P. Holland, M. Weil, et al.
GMN 3108.9 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/3838
1968 BLUMBERG, Baruch Samuel (1925 – 2011); BAYER, Manfred E. (1928 – 2015); WERNER, Barbara G.
Particles associated with Australia antigen in the sera of patients with leukemia, Down's syndrome and hepatitis.
Particles with the appearance of a virus were detected by electron microscopy in the serum of individuals with Au. These were subsequently shown to be the surface antigen particles, different from the whole virus part…
GMN 6840 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9004
1970 STEWART, Alice Mary (1906 – 2002); KNEALE, George W.
Radiation dose effects in relation to obstetric X-rays and childhood cancers.
In this study of ten million children Stewart and Kneale showed that obstetric X-rays significantly increased the rate of childhood leukemia and cancer.
GMN 7783 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9955
1982 GALLO, Robert Charles (1937 – ); KALYANARAMAN, V. S.; SARNGADHARAN, M. G.; ET AL
A new subtype of human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV-II) associated with a T-cell variant of hairy cell leukemia.
Order of authorship in the original publication: Kalyanaraman, Sarngadharan,... Gallo. Discovery by Gallo of HTLV-II, which like HTLV-I, is carcinogenic. (Thanks to Juan Weiss for this entry and its interpretation.)
GMN 11058 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13254
1991 FREIREICH, Emil J. (1927 – ); LEMAK, Noreen Ann (1921 – 2013)
Milestones in leukemia research and therapy.
Freireich was part of the team that first introduced combined-drug cancer chemotherapy in 1965.
GMN 8650 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10827
2001 DRUKER, Brian J. (1955 – ); TALPAZ, Moshe (1947 – ); RESTA, Debra J.; ET AL
Efficacy and safety of a specific inhibitor of the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase in chronic myeloid leukemia.
The authors showed that the experimental drug (STI571) Imatinib, sold under the brand names Gleevec and Glivec, 1) was well tolerated and had very significant antileukemic activity in patients with chronic myeloid leu…
GMN 14111 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16422
2008 LEY, Timothy J.; MARDIS, Elaine R. (1962 – ); WILSON, Richard K. (1959 – )
DNA sequencing of a cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukaemia genome.
Ley and collaborators decoded all the genes of a person with cancer (acute myeloid leukemia (AML)) and found a set of mutations that might have caused the disease or aided its progression.
GMN 13058 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15310
2011 JUNE, Carl H. (1953 – ); PORTER, David L.; LEVINE, Bruce L.; KALOS, Michael; ET AL
Chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cells in chronic lymphoid leukemia.
Carl H. June and colleagues proved that the ‘concept’ of CAR T-cell therapy developed by them, was a very promising and viable alternative in specific recalcitrant cancers. They showed that their novel in-vitro-create…
GMN 14112 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16423
