Editing Leukemia (section)

==History==
[[File:Rudolf Virchow.jpg|thumb|alt=Photo of the upper body of a bespectacled man|Rudolf Virchow]]
Leukemia was first described by anatomist and surgeon [[Alfred-Armand-Louis-Marie Velpeau]] in 1827. A more complete description was given by pathologist [[Rudolf Virchow]] in 1845. Around ten years after Virchow's findings, pathologist [[Franz Ernst Christian Neumann]] found that the bone marrow of a deceased person with leukemia was colored "dirty green-yellow" as opposed to the normal red. This finding allowed Neumann to conclude that a bone marrow problem was responsible for the abnormal blood of people with leukemia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thomas |first=Xavier |date=2013-08-06 |title=First contributors in the history of leukemia |journal=World Journal of Hematology |language=en |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=62–70 |doi=10.5315/wjh.v2.i3.62|doi-access=free }}</ref>

By 1900, leukemia was viewed as a family of diseases as opposed to a single disease. By 1947, Boston pathologist [[Sidney Farber]] believed from past experiments that [[aminopterin]], a folic acid mimic, could potentially cure leukemia in children. The majority of the children with ALL who were tested showed signs of improvement in their bone marrow, but none of them were actually cured. Nevertheless, this result did lead to further experiments.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Ribatti D | title = Sidney Farber and the treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia with a chemotherapeutic agent | journal = Pediatric Hematology and Oncology | volume = 29 | issue = 4 | pages = 299–302 | date = May 2012 | pmid = 22568792 | doi = 10.3109/08880018.2012.678969 | s2cid = 31176962 }}</ref>

In 1962, researchers Emil J. Freireich, Jr. and Emil Frei III used combination chemotherapy to attempt to cure leukemia. The tests were successful with some people surviving long after the tests.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Patlak M | title = Targeting leukemia: from bench to bedside | journal = FASEB Journal | volume = 16 | issue = 3 | pages = 273 | date = March 2002 | pmid = 11874976 | doi = 10.1096/fj.02-0029bkt | doi-access = free | s2cid = 221751708 }}</ref>

===Etymology===
Observing an abnormally large number of white blood cells in a blood sample from a person, Virchow called the condition ''Leukämie'' in [[German (language)|German]], which he formed from the two [[Greek language|Greek]] words ''leukos'' ([[wikt:λευκός|λευκός]]), meaning 'white', and ''haima'' ([[wikt:αἷμα|αἷμα]]), meaning 'blood'.<ref name="MedlinePlus 2019">{{cite web | title=Leukemia: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia | website=MedlinePlus | date=8 May 2019 | url=https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001299.htm | access-date=16 May 2019}}</ref> It was formerly also called ''leucemia''.<ref name="etymology">{{cite web |title=leukemia |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/leukemia |website=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=14 February 2023}}</ref>