Editing Mustard gas (section)

====Development of the first chemotherapy drug====
As early as 1919 it was known that mustard agent was a suppressor of [[hematopoiesis]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Krumbhaar EB |title=Rôle of the blood and the bone marrow in certain forms of gas poisoning: I. peripheral blood changes and their significance |journal=JAMA |doi=10.1001/jama.1919.26110010018009f|volume=72 |pages=39–41 |year=1919 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1423423 }}</ref> In addition, autopsies performed on 75 soldiers who had died of mustard agent during [[World War I]] were done by researchers from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] who reported decreased counts of [[white blood cell]]s.<ref name="faguet" /> This led the American Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) to finance the biology and chemistry departments at [[Yale University]] to conduct research on the use of chemical warfare during World War II.<ref name="faguet" /><ref name="gilman">{{cite journal |author=Gilman A |title=The initial clinical trial of nitrogen mustard |journal=Am. J. Surg. |volume=105 |pages=574–8 |date=May 1963 |pmid=13947966 |doi=10.1016/0002-9610(63)90232-0 |issue=5}}</ref>

As a part of this effort, the group investigated [[nitrogen mustard]] as a therapy for [[Hodgkin's lymphoma]] and other types of [[lymphoma]] and [[leukemia]], and this compound was tried out on its first human patient in December 1942. The results of this study were not published until 1946, when they were declassified.<ref name="gilman" /> In a parallel track, after the [[air raid on Bari]] in December 1943, the doctors of the U.S. Army noted that white blood cell counts were reduced in their patients. Some years after World War II was over, the incident in Bari and the work of the Yale University group with nitrogen mustard converged, and this prompted a search for other similar [[chemical compound]]s. Due to its use in previous studies, the nitrogen mustard called "HN2" became the first cancer [[chemotherapy]] drug, [[chlormethine]] (also known as mechlorethamine, mustine) to be used. Chlormethine and other mustard gas molecules are still used to this day as an chemotherapy agent albeit they have largely been replaced with more safe chemotherapy drugs like [[cisplatin]] and [[carboplatin]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Scott |first=Lesley J. |date=2017-06-01 |title=Chlormethine 160 mcg/g gel in mycosis fungoides-type cutaneous T-cell lymphoma: a profile of its use in the EU |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s40267-017-0409-7 |journal=Drugs & Therapy Perspectives |language=en |volume=33 |issue=6 |pages=249–253 |doi=10.1007/s40267-017-0409-7 |s2cid=256367068 |issn=1179-1977}}</ref>