mesothelioma blog

We’ve mentioned “chemobrain” on this blog before. That was on the occasion of a study seeming to confirm the existence of the loss of cognitive function that many chemotherapy patients report. Now two studies presented at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting case doubt. An Australian researcher found that “chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment was infrequent” in his work with breast cancer patients on chemotherapy. A Michigan State study found chemo patients performed only marginally worse on memory tests than similar people without cancer.

Paul Ehrlich won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1908. He was a very influential and visionary scientist, who coined the word chemotherapy. He also came up with the idea of a “magic bullet” - a chemical or physical substance introduced to the body that would attack the disease and only the disease, leaving the healthy tissue alone. Chemotherapy has been unfortunately not specific over the past decades. The new research into “targeted therapy” may get us closer to Ehrlich’s dream.

I just learned there was a move about Ehrlich made in 1940, starring Edward G. Robinson. Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet.