Andy Wilson, a popular returning speaker from Yorkshire Cancer Research, gave a fascinating talk on the history and development of chemotherapy entitled:
‘Berenblum & the Bari Bombs’.
He explained how mustard gas, used during the first war and continued to be produced during World War II, was found to be effective against skin cancer.
There were observations of this during and after World War I, but it was when a ship carrying mustard gas was blown up in the southern Italian harbour of Bari and the subsequent injuries which were observed by an American military doctor that research was taken forward.
The Berenblum in the talk’s title referred to Isaac Berenblum, pathologist, who was a seminal researcher in the development and understanding of chemotherapy.
Andy described the history and development of the field of chemotherapy in cancer treatment in a very digestible and understandable way.