The skin and the eyes are among the first organs to be affected. The toxicity of this agent is dose-dependent. While lower concentrations can cause symptoms as minor as skin irritation and conjunctivitis, higher titers can lead to morbid consequences such as necrotic ulcerations of the skin and blindness.
At still higher concentrations, inhaled vapors can damage the mucous membrane lining of the respiratory tract, leading to hemorrhagic pulmonary edema. Sulfur mustard also causes chronic sequelae. After exposure, surviving victims might exhibit nausea, vomiting, alopecia, and increased vulnerability to infection. The organs primarily affected are the lining of the gastrointestinal tract and the bone marrow, due to their inherent high mitotic activity.
Despite its sinister history, mustard gas has played a key role in the development of anti-cancer chemotherapeutic agents and may justly be referred to as the egg from which medical oncology has hatched. The history of medicine contains many tales of accidental discovery, but how did a deadly gas become the first effective chemotherapeutic agent? Fast forward 30 years to the Second World War. The interwar period resulted in numerous provisions—including the Geneva Protocol of —to ban the use of chemical weapons.
It was also a time during which many nations—both purposefully and accidentally—developed and stockpiled chemical agents. Thankfully, chemical weapons, including mustard gas, were not used extensively by either side during World War II. This was a period of intense—and justified—paranoia, however.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower had made provisions for a stockpile of tons of mustard gas on the S. In December , Nazi air strikes destroyed the John Harvey, among other ships, resulting in surprisingly few casualties despite the impressive amount of fire and destruction. In the days and weeks following this catastrophe, however, survivors began to develop the familiar signs of mustard gas exposure.
Stewart Francis Alexander, an expert in chemical warfare, suspected exposure to the famous vapor. Wintrobe, W.
Dameshek, M. Goodman, A. Gilman and M. McLennan, Nitrogen mustard therapy: use of methyl-bis beta-choloethyl amuine hydrochloride abd tris beta-chloroethyl amine hydrochloride for Hodgkin's disease, lymphosarcoma, leukema and certain allied and miscellaneous disorder [landmark article]. JAMA, ; De Vita and E. A History of Cancer Chemotherapy. American Association for Cancer Research, ; Cancer Facts and Figures Planning cancer control in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Lancet, ; The birth of cancer chemotherapy: accident and research.
Unlikely sources for cancer treatment As with many discoveries in science, chance and coincidence have favored innovation in the creation of new medications or treatments. Research to practice: How the first chemotherapeutic agents were identified The effects of mustard gas on blood cells and bone marrow were first reported by Dr Eward Krumbhaar in after treating exposed patients in France [ 6 ].
What's next? What more can be done for cancer control Since the s, overall death rates from cancer have declined in the USA [ 12 ]. More on www. An anniversary for cancer chemotherapy. Any area of the body which is moist is particularly susceptible to attack by mustard gas, because although it is only slightly soluble in water, which makes it difficult to wash off, hydrolysis the splitting of a compund by water is rapid, and occurs freely.
Despite the ease of hydrolysis, mustard gas in its solid form has been found to last underground for up to ten years. This is because, in an environment where the concentration of water is relatively low, the reaction pathway is able to proceed once, thiodiglycol is formed using most of the water available at the solid surface, but then the sulfonium intermediate reacts with this instead of another molecule of water, as the concentration of water molecules at the bulk surface is now lower than the concentration of thiodiglycol.
This produces stable, non-reactive sulfonium salts, which form a protective layer around the bulk material, and therefore prevent further reaction.
Mustard Gas N-mustard.
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