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 5HT3 receptor antagonists 82 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(O2CCH3)2(NH3) (cyclohexylamine)] 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 Each meeting is fully recorded, the tapes are transcribed and the unedited transcript is immediately sent to every participant. Each is asked to check his or her own contributions and to provide brief biographical details. The editors turn the transcript into readable text, and participants’ minor corrections and comments are incorporated into that text, while biographical and bibliographical details are added as footnotes, as are more substantial comments and additional material provided by participants. The final scripts are then sent to every contributor, accompanied by forms assigning copyright to the Wellcome Trust. Copies of all additional correspondence received during the editorial process are deposited with the records of each meeting in Archives and Manuscripts, Wellcome Library, London. As with all our meetings, we hope that even if the precise details of some of the technical sections are not clear to the non-specialist, the sense and significance of the events will be understandable. Our aim is for the volumes that emerge from these meetings to inform those with a general interest in the history of modern medicine and medical science; to provide historians with new insights, fresh material for study, and further themes for research; and to emphasize to the participants that events of the recent past, of their own working lives, are of proper and necessary concern to historians. Members of the Programme Committee of the History of Twentieth Century Medicine Group, 2006–07 Dr Tilli Tansey – Reader in History of Modern Medical Sciences, Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL (WTCHM) and Chair Sir Christopher Booth – WTCHM, former Director, Clinical Research Centre, Northwick Park Hospital, London Dr Robert Bud – Principal Curator of Medicine and Manager of Electronic Content, Science Museum, London Dr Daphne Christie – Senior Research Assistant, WTCHM, and Organizing Secretary Dr John Ford – Retired General Practitioner, Tonbridge Professor Mark Jackson – Centre for Medical