Introduction

In around 4^th or 5^th century BC, Greeks discovered cancer. Leukemia was first diagnosed in 1845 by John Hughes Benett in Edinburgh. In 19^th century, other doctors were also noticing abnormal levels of WBCs or white blood corpuscles. They called it weisses blut or white blood. In fact, the name leukemia also means white blood and is got by joining two words in Greek, leukos or white and heima or blood. History of leukemia became further interesting in 1913, when 4 different types of leukemia were discovered and classified. These were- chronic lymphocytic leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, acute lymphocytic leukemia, and erythroleukemia. For the patients of leukemia life started become more hopeful in 1970 with a cure being found for it. In two more decades the success rates were going up to 70%.

History of Childhood Leukemia

A leukemia family history could be the cause of childhood leukemia. It can also be attributed to lifestyle changes. With many mothers opting not to breast feed the child, the history of leukemia took another turn to report increased rate of childhood leukemia. Now, mothers are being advised to breastfeed the baby to help it build the essential antibodies. When looking at the history of increased leukemia cases in children, the industrialization, the pollution and other environmental contaminants have to be kept in mind as the probable cause for Leukemia. Thus there is a definite connection between the child’s history, leukemia and the environment.

History of Leukemia- Treatments

• Arsenic: The earliest known form of treatment of leukemia was arsenic. It is found in ancient Hindu texts, Hippocrates and Greeks are said to have used arsenic. The 18^th century saw the curious invention called “Fowler’s solution” which was also arsenic based. And in 1865 it was used in Germany to treat leukemia. The research into arsenic as a cure is still on.

• Radiation: When world was giving up hope on a treatment for Leukemia, radiation therapy was introduced. Radiation was first used on tumors, when found to be successful; it was then tried out on patients of leukemia with good results. But radiation could also be cause for leukemia and this was discovered later.

• Chemotherapy: Well into 1940s, the world still had no good cure for Leukemia. Mustard gas, which was used by Germany during the ‘2^nd World War’ was found to be an effective cure for leukemia.

• Bone marrow transfusion: A great leap in the history of leukemia came with discovery of DNA. This opened up doors for bone marrow research. With this came the best cure for leukemia known till date. This was also a landmark in the history of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.