For a long time since studying drug-based, as well as natural and other systems of medicine, I am wondering who invented that word called "chemotherapy" to mean using anticancer drugs to treat cancer?
Treatment of diseases using chemical substances started in 1906, from the German word “Chemotherapie”, coined by German biochemist Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915), and the word chemo- + therapie or therapy. Especially for cancer from the 1950s, short form chemo was used widely in 1977 onwards. The practice of medicine from natural plant-based medicine and natural therapeutics to drug-based conventional allopathic medicine started around a 100 years ago. It was started by John D Rockefeller who turned medicine into a business monopoly.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=231599861908503
He founded western petroleum-based chemicals as medicine here:
https://www.logically.ai/factchecks/library/d1351afc
On this matter, all drugs are chemicals. They are organic chemicals to be exact, and they all have a molecular formula derived from molecules which is representative of the total number of individual atoms present in a molecule of a compound.
A molecular formula uses a subscript that reports the actual number of each type of atom in a molecule of the compound, whereas molecular formulae are associated with gram molecular masses that are simple whole number multiples of the corresponding empirical formula mass.
Let’s take the example of glucose. The molecular formula of glucose is C6H12O6, and the empirical formula of glucose is CH2O. We can derive a relationship between the molecular formula and the empirical formula of glucose.
The structural formula of a chemical compound is a graphic representation of the molecular structure (determined by structural chemistry methods), showing how the atoms are possibly arranged in the real three-dimensional space. The chemical bonding within the molecule is also shown, either explicitly or implicitly. Unlike other chemical formula types, which have a limited number of symbols and are capable of only limited descriptive power, structural formulas provide a more complete geometric representation of the molecular structure. This includes all drugs which are all organic compounds, whether synthetic or naturally derived. There is no exception. We can spell out all their compositions including their 3-dimensional configurations. That’s not a problem.
Let’ s just take a simple single example of Aspirin which is chemically called acetylsalicylic acid.
Acetylsalicylic acid molecular formula is,
C18H16O8 with a molecular weight of 360.3 g/mol.
All anticancer drugs technically are called antineoplastic agents such as:
Antifolates: examples are methotrexate, pemetrexed, pralatrexate, trimetrexate, or purine analogues such as azathioprine, cladribine, fludarabine, mercaptopurine, thioguanine or pyrimidine analogues such as azacitidine, capecitabine, cytarabine, decitabine, floxuridine, fluorouracil, gemcitabine, and trifluridine or tipracil. All of them are all organic compounds and are toxic. All of them have a chemical formula with their 3-dimensional configurations.
All antineoplastic agents and non-anticancer drugs exert some kind of a chemical reaction on molecular or cellular level of the cells. We shall give one example. We will use the anticancer drug called azacytidine. This anticancer drug exerts its antineoplastic effects by causing hypomethylation of DNA and direct cytotoxicity on abnormal hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow. The concentration of azacytidine required for maximum inhibition of DNA methylation in vitro does not cause major suppression of DNA synthesis. There is completely no exception to claim they are not chemicals that interfere with the pathological chemistry or even with the normal cellular chemistry of the body.
Besides chemotherapy, there are also hormone therapies, targeted cancer drugs, immunotherapy drugs and bisphosphonates used in the management of cancers. All of them are some kind of synthetic organic chemicals, including chemical compounds produced by the body itself such as hormones and immunoglobulins.
For instance, Dostarlimab is a type of cancer antibody, which is a protein made by the immune system. Dostarlimab blocks another protein called programmed cell death receptor-1, or PD-1 that usually acts as a “brake” on the immune system. Dostarlimab is a monoclonal antibody which is a very complex molecule with a chemical formula given as C6420H9832N1690O2014S44 and it has a molar mass of 144325.73 g·mol−1 . This agent is technically an organic chemical.
As a chemist specializing in analytical food chemistry and food quality control besides in medicine and other medical sciences, though not practising anymore, food quality control involves a wide range of other scientific disciplines such as microbiology, statistics, toxicology, together with an understand of pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacology and medicine, I think the use of this word “chemotherapy” meant only for cancer treatment is technically wrong.
The term “chemotherapy” should also apply to all medical treatment that involves the use of chemical drugs. There should be no exception. All drugs are chemicals labelled under the glorified and disguised name as “medicines” produced by Big Pharma pharmaceutical companies. These chemical drugs react and interfere with the body chemistry and all of them become toxic when given past a certain level, especially to the liver that needs to detoxify them, and the kidneys that need to excrete their metabolites after their metabolisms in the body.
Their action on the body is called “pharmacodynamics” and the body’s action on them after ingestion is called “pharmacokinetics”. Since they are all organic chemicals, they react and interfere with both the normal as well as with the abnormal pathological chemistry of the body in disease states.
Hence, all drug therapy which are actually chemical treatments, are appropriately “chemotherapy” and there is not an iota of reason that only cancer treatment using antineoplastic agents is called “chemotherapy” and the rest are not. This does not make any biological, medical, chemical, scientific and logical sense to me.
All drugs are toxic and can be accumulative on prolonged use. There is a time frame in which drugs can be safely used. We call this “therapeutic window” which is the time range between injury and treatment during which the treatment is still effective. An overdose or prolonged use of any chemical drugs under the guise as “medicines” above their therapeutic windows chemically damages the body.
Toxicity is a major worry for anticancer agents as well as with all drugs on high doses and on prolonged use. These chemical compounds present a narrow therapeutic index, with a small difference between the dose essential for an antitumor or other therapeutic effects and is also responsible for unacceptable toxicity. Their doses are titrated to their toxicity endpoint. Often chemical drugs toxicity has been found earlier than their therapeutic effect such as drug intolerances that can be fatal as much as with all anticancer drugs. Their chemical toxicities depend on their pharmacodynamic endpoints.
It is not just anticancer drugs that are highly toxic and dangerous. All chemicals are, including seemingly harmless ones such as paracetamol in overdose including prolonged use of alcohol, tobacco, heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. Their substance abuse is still among the most dangerous addictive substances in the world.
Let me remind ourselves once again including for all medical doctors and clinicians, patients and everyone who has little or no understanding on chemistry, all drugs (which is too long to list them here), but sufficed to give just three examples starting with “A” such as Allopurinol with a chemical formula C5H4N4O. It is an xanthine oxidase inhibitor, a urate-lowering drug used in the treatment of gout by reducing urinary and serum uric acid. It is a small molecule drug. It is a structural analogue of the natural purine base, hypoxanthine. After ingestion, allopurinol is metabolized to its active metabolite, oxypurinol (alloxanthine) in the liver which acts as an inhibitor of xanthine oxidase enzyme.
Allopurinol and its active metabolite inhibit xanthine oxidase, the enzyme that converts hypoxanthine to xanthine and xanthine to uric acid. Inhibition of this enzyme is responsible for the effects of allopurinol. This drug increases the reutilization of hypoxanthine and xanthine for nucleotide and nucleic acid synthesis by a process that involves the enzyme hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRTase). This process results in an increased nucleotide concentration, which causes feedback inhibition of de novo purine synthesis. The end result is decreased urine and serum uric acid concentrations, which decreases the incidence of gout symptoms. We can see this involves chemistry and hence “chemo” Its mode of action is not something physical.
Then we all the way to somewhere in the middle between A – Z with the letter M such as Metformin, an antidiabetic chemical drug. Chemically Metformin is 1,1 dimethyl-biguanide hydrochloride with a mode of action and uses similar to other biguanides. This small molecule is soluble in water and 95% alcohol; on the other hand, it is practically insoluble in ether or chloroform. Chemical analysis showed the crystallographic structure of metformin and its derivatives – namely metformin hydrochloride, N, N-dimethylbiguanidium nitrate and metal complexes with metformin. At the molecular level, metformin inhibits the mitochondrial respiratory chain in the liver, leading to activation of AMPK, enhancing insulin sensitivity (via effects on fat metabolism) and lowering cAMP, thus reducing the expression of gluconeogenic enzymes.
Then we go down to ‘Z” with Zolpidem, an agent that helps those suffering from insomnia to drift into sweet dreamlands. Differing from benzodiazepines, which non-selectively bind to and activate all benzodiazepine (BZ) receptor subtypes, zolpidem in vitro binds the BZ1 receptor preferentially with a high-affinity ratio of the alpha1/alpha5 subunits.
Zolpidem, or Ambien, is a hypnotic drug with a chemical formula of 2C19H21N3O whose chemical name is 6-methyl-N,N-dimethyl-2-(4-methylphenyl)imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-3-acetamide. Again, we can tell it is a complex organic compound that acts on the chemistry of the brain, and its hypnotic effect is purely chemo (chemical), and through meditation.
We can go on and on writing complete chapters on pharmacology into volumes, but this is outside the scope of this very short article on the chemistry of drugs on the body.
All are treatment using chemical drugs are derived from petroleum chemicals and their derivatives, or by synthesis or by stemming them from microorganisms such as antibiotics like streptomycin, tetracycline, vancomycin, and erythromycin, derived from bacteria should not technically be labelled as “chemotherapy” So why must only treatment using cancer drugs be labelled as in such a way?
This, to me, is chemically and pharmacologically wrong and unacceptable. This is cheating by the Big Pharma and large pharmaceutical companies to disguise drugs as harmless medicines.
Similarly, any non-drug treatment such as using radiation, rightfully is called radiotherapy, physical or physiological manipulation is physiotherapy or exercise as physical therapy, using nutritional approaches is appropriately called dietotherapy, or dietetics, using needles as acupuncture, physical manipulation and massage of the skeleton and musculature called osteopathy, and using meditation, hypnotherapy, and psychotherapy as “mind therapies” among other non-pharmacological or non-chemical therapies, including stress management and non-pharmacological management of lifestyle diseases.
Unfortunately, even botanical medicines such as herbal medicine may also be labelled as "chemotherapy" because even natural medicines extracted from plants actually have pharmacologically active chemical principles in them.
The pharmacologically active principles in these medicinal plants from which an estimated 40 % of all modern drugs are derived, have a chemical empirical and structural formula and a molecular weight. We cannot deny this and pass it as “natural medicine” even though their active principles are naturally- occurring compounds.
As an analytical chemist, we can clearly show this using a whole range of our spectrophotometers at our disposal including mass spectrometers.
A mass spectrometry is an analytical method we use for measuring the mass-to-charge ratio of one or more molecules present in a sample. These measurements can often be used to calculate the exact molecular weight of the sample components as well. We use it to determine molecular identity and structure of any chemical compound, including drugs and medicine.
Alternatively, we can also use a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer for us to determine the chemical structures of any drug including those from medicinal plants. That is not a problem for an analytical chemist as in others in their areas of medical and pharmaceutical expertise.
I believe the Big Pharma is trying to hoodwink all medical doctors, patients and the lay public to convince them they are just "medicines" and only cancer drugs are chemicals. Unfortunately, not all are idiots for sure!
We can see from some sample examples given above, all drugs are organic chemicals that act on the chemistry of the body, and they are neither physical manipulation, psychological or something unknown to us.
Unknown to Science:
What is unknown to us and to science is, how did Jesus instantly treat merely by the touch of His hands or by just a few spoken words through His mouth. Jesus did not use a single chemical molecule produced by Big Pharma. It is much, much more than just spiritual therapy. I have written many articles in this blog on the mysteries of life, death and disease, and it is possible that Jesus may have pumped in some unknown energy into a diseased body to reorient life chemistries to normalcy instantly.
His miracle Hands with His miracle healing, how they work is far, far beyond our science to understand till today.
For further reading, please see these four articles as examples:
Scientific Logic: Search results for history of medicine
https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=ancient+medicine
https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2023/04/drugs-do-not-cure-diseases.html
https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2023/04/an-almost-instant-cure-for-neck-to.html
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