The Birth of Chemotherapy at Yale

Chemotherapy, one of the mainstays of cancer treatment today, was pioneered at Yale during World War II. Last year, two Yale surgeons, Drs. John Fenn and Robert Udelsman, sought to unearth the mystery surrounding the discovery of chemotherapy and its first use at Yale. The first chemotherapy patient is known only as JD in the literature, and without a name, date of birth, or medical record number, a search for his record seemed futile. However, persistence coupled with sheer fortune led them to JD's chart, where they found information that differed from previous accounts. The riveting personal story of JD, an immigrant patient with lymphosarcoma, was revealed for the first time by Drs. Fenn and Udelsman on January 19, 2011, at a special Surgical Grand Rounds celebrating the bicentennial of Yale School of Medicine.