MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

This medical school seminar paper will discuss the discovery of Methotrexate. Chemotherapy is a prominent field in medicine today. Methotrexate is used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia, osteosarcoma, choriocarcinoma, mycosis fungoides, and breast cancer. Furthermore, Methotrexate was one of the first chemotherapy agents discovered. This drug’s unique discovery led to the prominent standing chemotherapy has today as a viable treatment option for patients with cancer. This drug is a type of folic acid analog. Folic acid analogs were first studied in the early 1950s. Methotrexate was then established relatively quickly as the most effective folic acid analog synthesized. Clinical trials for this drug in treatment of many different cancers started shortly thereafter. The results from many different clinical trials quickly validated Methotrexate’s effectiveness. Additionally, the effectiveness of combination chemotherapy was studied, where Methotrexate was administered to a patient in addition to other chemotherapy drugs. Breast cancer patients were found to respond extremely well to this form of treatment. This again added to Methotrexate’s clinical significance. Recently, this drug has been used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and lupus. Patients of these diseases have reported varying responses to the drug, but the field is quickly evolving. This paper will discuss the seminal papers that were published that established Methotrexate’s clinical standing. It will also discuss current, novel uses of the drug and areas for future research.

Reader’s Response

Reader’s Profile: Medical school student that has no interest in oncology

Methotrexate sounds interesting, but why is it any more important than any other drug in the oncology field? I would think that radiation therapy is more effective and the baseline for treating cancers. I really don’t think that Methotrexate is that vastly used. Besides, even if it is used, chemotherapy should run into the same problem that traditional radiation therapy runs into, which is how to affect cancerous cells only without affecting normal cells. Sounds like an interesting field, but more research needs to be done.

Modified Thesis: Chemotherapy is a long-trusted treatment option for cancer, and Methotrexate is a very prominent, renowned drug in this field. However, the rich history of chemotherapy is not often discussed in the classic Biological Sciences undergraduate program. Therefore, this literature review will discuss the seminal papers that led to the discovery of Methotrexate as a viable treatment option for cancer. - GT

Voice: Third person throughout paper
Citation: APA citations throughout

G, good plan. Be sure to note the limitations, though. For example, resistance is well characterized in the literature since before the early 90s. Be sure to comment on that.

Here is a proof of concept paper about MT as a diagnostic marker....
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29207127

Nice way to close, with this idea of diagnostic uses.