Ho-Chih Lin

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

1969

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department / School

Chemistry

Abstract

Cancer is a disease which has been recognized since ancient times and which in every generation has killed many victims of all ages and of all stations in life. The disease has been fought against from generation to generation with whatever ideas and tools available at that time. Today, although cures for many diseases have been found, cancer is still under investigation and more efforts are demanded to overcome the disease. In cancer chemotherapy, it is hoped that drugs can be found which will have a selectively toxic effect on neoplastic cells. 5-Fluorouracil was synthesized in 1957 by Duochinky, Pleven, and Heidelberger and has been intensively studied. The agent produces a significant incidence of objective responses in patients suffering from advanced solid tumors, particularly in breast and gastrointestinal cancers, and prolongs the life of patients with breast carcinomas, but at the expense of some bone marrow and gastrointestinal toxicities. The toxicities result from the lack of real selectivity against cancer cells by this drug. The cytotoxic action of nitrogen mustard compounds was first applied to the treatment of malignant neoplasms in the 1940s following the observation of Gilman and Philips that these agents caused regression of certain experimental tumors, Hodgkins' disease, and lymphosarcoma. A nitrogen mustard derivative, cyclophosphamide, was synthesized by Arnold, Bourseaus and Brock in 1958. The selective activity of cyclophosphamide toward cancer cells.in comparison to nitrogen mustards per se is of interest and induced the research objective of synthesizing a similar derivative of 5-fluouracil to decrease the side effects of 5-fiuorouracil.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Cancer -- Research

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

45

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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