ABSTRACT
The field of cancer chemotherapy has experienced tremendous growth; nonetheless, it still lacks the kind of breakthrough therapy that penicillin represented for antimicrobials. The techniques now available to carry out these tasks have allowed rational design of new potential therapeutics. Only very rare cancers are considered "curable." These include Burkitt's lymphoma, choriocarcinoma, acute leukemia in children, Hodgkin's disease, Ewing's sarcoma, and testicular carcinoma. Unfortunately for cancer patients, there are no significant differences between normal cells and cells in their tumors; therefore, selective toxicity is seldom achieved. A "complete" cure of cancer would require killing every malignant cell, which is very difficult to attain. "Sulfur mustards" were chemicals used during World War I as powerful vesicants, producing blisters at tissues far from the site of contact. The name was given due to the odor of the chemical during the manufacturing process. Many other drugs have been developed for the treatment of cancer since the discovery of the sulfur and nitrogen mustards.
