The Discovery, Use and Impact of Platinum Salts as Chemotherapy Agents for Cancer (Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine Vol 30)

Serendipity played a large part in the discovery of the biological actions of the simple platinum coordination complexes. In the mid-1960s, Professor Barnett Rosenberg and colleagues found that a simple platinum-based compound prevented bacteria from dividing normally. He tested the compound on cancer cells and showed that it was biologically active. Cisplatin has since emerged as one of the most widely prescribed anticancer agents. Cisplatin has been shown to be effective either alone or in combination for the treatment of a wide variety of solid cancers in man, including testicular and ovarian cancers. It is also palliative in the treatment of cancers of the head and neck, bladder, prostate, lung, cervix, and in some paediatric cancers. Toxic side effects of the drug include damage to the kidney and severe side effects include such nausea and vomiting that patients have been known to refuse treatment. In turn, the cisplatin-induced emesis provided a major stimulus for research into anti-emetics, which has provided several effective drugs for the relief of many kinds of nausea and vomiting, especially that associated with radio- and chemotherapy. The relief of such toxic side effects has been an important factor in encouraging patients to continue successfully otherwise unpleasant forms of cancer therapy. Participants who attended this Witness Seminar include representatives from several areas of work on the platinum compounds: chemists who worked with Rosenberg; oncologists who pioneered their use clinically; and pharmacologists who examined the emetic properties of these compounds, and devised, in particular, the 5HT3 receptor antagonists Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 2 Copyright Page......Page 3 Contents......Page 4 Illustrations And Credits......Page 6 Abbreviations......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 12 Witness Seminars:......Page 14 Published Meetings......Page 17 Introduction......Page 24 Transcripts......Page 28 Participants......Page 29 Appendix 1 In Praise of Methotrexateby Professor Sir Kenneth Calman......Page 105 Appendix 2 Structures of some 5HT receptor antagonists......Page 109 Appendix 3 Components of the emetic reflex......Page 110 References......Page 111 Biographical Notes......Page 125 Glossary ......Page 133 Index: Subject......Page 136 Index Names......Page 143 Key to cover photographs......Page 148 Cover 1 Title Page 2 Copyright Page 3 Contents 4 Illustrations And Credits 6 Abbreviations 8 Acknowledgements 12 History Of Twentieth Century Medicine Witness Seminars, 14 Witness Seminars: 14 Published Meetings 17 Introduction 24 Transcripts 28 Participants 29 Appendix 1 In Praise of Methotrexateby Professor Sir Kenneth Calman 105 Appendix 2 Structures of some 5HT receptor antagonists 109 Appendix 3 Components of the emetic reflex 110 References 111 Biographical Notes 125 Glossary 133 Index: Subject 136 Index Names 143 Key to cover photographs 148 Witness Vol 30 Discovery,Use and Impact of Platinum Salts as Chemotherapy Agents for Cancer (2007) 149p 9780854841127 0854841121