The Discovery, Use and Impact of Platinum Salts as Chemotherapy Agents for Cancer (Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine Vol 30)

149 Pages·2007·1.8 MB·English

by  D

The Discovery, Use anD
impacT of plaTinUm salTs as
chemoTherapy agenTs for cancer
The transcript of a Witness Seminar held by the Wellcome Trust Centre
for the History of Medicine at UCL, London, on 4 April 2006
edited by D a christie and e m Tansey
volume 30 2007
©The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, london, 2007
first published by the Wellcome Trust centre
for the history of medicine at Ucl, 2007
The Wellcome Trust centre for the history of medicine
at Ucl is funded by the Wellcome Trust, which is
a registered charity, no. 210183.
isBn 978 085484 112 7
all volumes are freely available online following the links to publications/Wellcome Witnesses at
www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed
Technology Transfer in Britain: The case of monoclonal antibodies; Self and Non-self:
A history of autoimmunity; Endogenous Opiates; The Committee on Safety of Drugs
• Making the Human Body Transparent: The impact of NMR and MRI; Research in
General Practice; Drugs in Psychiatric Practice; The MRC Common Cold Unit •
Early Heart Transplant Surgery in the UK • Haemophilia: Recent history of clinical
management • Looking at the Unborn: Historical aspects of obstetric ultrasound •
Post Penicillin Antibiotics: From acceptance to resistance? • Clinical Research in
Britain, 1950–1980 • Intestinal Absorption • Origins of Neonatal Intensive Care in
the UK • British Contributions to Medical Research and Education in Africa after
the Second World War • Childhood Asthma and Beyond • Maternal Care •
Population-based Research in South Wales:The MRC Pneumoconiosis Research Unit
and the MRC Epidemiology Unit • Peptic Ulcer: Rise and fall • Leukaemia • The MRC
Applied Psychology Unit • Genetic Testing • Foot and Mouth Disease: The 1967
outbreak and its aftermath • Environmental Toxicology: The legacy of Silent Spring • Cystic
Fibrosis • Innovation in Pain Management • The Rhesus Factor and Disease Prevention •
The Recent History of Platelets in Thrombosis and Other Disorders • Short-course
Chemotherapy for Tuberculosis • Prenatal Corticosteroids for Reducing Morbidity
and Mortality after Preterm Birth • Public Health in the 1980s and 1990s: Decline
and rise? • Cholesterol, Atherosclerosis and Coronary Disease in the UK, 1950–2000
• Development of Physics Applied to Medicine in the UK, 1945–1990 •
Early Development of Total Hip Replacement • The Discovery, Use and Impact of
Platinum Salts as Chemotherapy Agents for Cancer
conTenTs
illustrations and credits v
abbreviations vii
Witness seminars: meetings and publications; acknowledgements
E M Tansey and D A Christie ix
introduction
Matti Aapro xxiii
Transcript
Edited by D A Christie and E M Tansey 1
appendix 1
Poem by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman, In Praise of Methotrexate 78
appendix 2
Structures of some 5HT receptor antagonists 82
3
appendix 3
Components of the emetic reflex 83
references 84
Biographical notes 98
glossary 106
index 109

illUsTraTions anD creDiTs
figure 1 Platinum (II) and platinum (IV) ions dictate different
coordination numbers and geometries on a set of
surrounding ligands.
Figure provided by Professor Andrew Thomson. 10
figure 2 Influence of light on ligand exchange.
Figure provided by Professor Andrew Thomson. 10
figure 3 Synthesis of cis and trans isomers of
diamminodichloro Pt (II).
Figure provided by Professor Andrew Thomson. 11
figure 4 Chemical properties of cis-platin relevant
to drug action, a bifunctional reagent.
Figure provided by Professor Andrew Thomson. 11
figure 5 Binding modes to DNA of platinating and
alkylating agents.
Figure provided by Professor Andrew Thomson. 12
figure 6 Structures of some second generation platinum drugs.
Figure provided by Professor Andrew Thomson. 12
figure 7 Chemical structures of AMD473 and JM216.
Figure provided by Professor Andrew Thomson. 12
figure 8 Gareth Sanger, Wesley Miner, Robert Naylor,
David Tattersall at the Witness Seminar on The
Discovery, Use and Impact of Platinum Salts as
Chemotherapy Agents for Cancer, 4 April 2006.
Photograph reproduced with permission of
Dr Gareth Sanger. 45
figure 9 Sir John Gaddum.
Photograph reproduced with permission of the
Wellcome Photographic Library. 50
v

Abbreviations
AFP alpha fetoprotein
AMD473 picoplatin, [cis-amminedichloro (2-methylpyridine) platinum]
ASCO American Society of Clinical Oncology
AUC area under the curve
BRL 43694 granisetron
CHIP see JM9
Cisplatin cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum II
FDA Food and Drug Administration
GFR glomerular filtration rate
GR 38032F later ondansetron, or Zofran®
HPLC high pressure liquid chromatography
5HT 5-hydroxytryptamine
ICS 205-930 tropisetron
JM Johnson Matthey
JM216 [ cis-, trans- 5(O CCH ) (NH ) (cyclohexylamine)]
2 3 2 3
JM8 carboplatin, [cis-diammine (1,1-cyclobutanedicarboxylato)
platinum (II)], Paraplatin®
JM9 iproplatin, cis-dichlorobis (isopropylamine) trans-
dihydroxyplatinum (IV)
MRC Medical Research Council
MSU Michigan State University
6-MP 6-mercaptopurine
NCI National Cancer Institute
NIH National Institutes of Health
vii
OPB Paediatric Oncology Group of Benelux
PhRMA Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
Association
SIOPEL International Childhood Liver Tumour Strategy Group
STS sodium thiosulfate
UEA University of East Anglia
WiTness seminars:
MEETINGS AND PUBLICATIONS 1
In 1990 the Wellcome Trust created a History of Twentieth Century Medicine
Group, associated with the Academic Unit of the Wellcome Institute for the
History of Medicine, to bring together clinicians, scientists, historians and others
interested in contemporary medical history. Among a number of other initiatives
the format of Witness Seminars, used by the Institute of Contemporary British
History to address issues of recent political history, was adopted, to promote
interaction between these different groups, to emphasize the potential benefits
of working jointly, and to encourage the creation and deposit of archival sources
for present and future use. In June 1999 the Governors of the Wellcome Trust
decided that it would be appropriate for the Academic Unit to enjoy a more
formal academic affiliation and turned the Unit into the Wellcome Trust Centre
for the History of Medicine at UCL from 1 October 2000. The Wellcome
Trust continues to fund the Witness Seminar programme via its support for
the Centre.
The Witness Seminar is a particularly specialized form of oral history, where
several people associated with a particular set of circumstances or events are
invited to come together to discuss, debate, and agree or disagree about their
memories. To date, the History of Twentieth Century Medicine Group has
held nearly 50 such meetings, most of which have been published, as listed on
pages xvi–xx.
Subjects are usually proposed by, or through, members of the Programme
Committee of the Group, which includes professional historians of medicine,
practising scientists and clinicians, and once an appropriate topic has been
agreed, suitable participants are identified and invited. This inevitably leads to
further contacts, and more suggestions of people to invite. As the organization
of the meeting progresses, a flexible outline plan for the meeting is devised,
usually with assistance from the meeting’s chairman, and some participants are
invited to ‘set the ball rolling’ on particular themes, by speaking for a short
period to initiate and stimulate further discussion.
1 The following text also appears in the ‘Introduction’ to recent volumes of Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth
Century Medicine published by the Wellcome Trust and the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of
Medicine at UCL.
ix