I am so exhausted of being nice to people that suggest that chemotherapeutic agents are toxic when they are made of compounds found in different parts of the world. A walk down memory lane with receipts: https://twitter.com/Ambreezi3/status/1289744133343416320

Upon being diagnosed at 19 with Stage 4B Hodgkin’s lymphoma, it was suggested for me to do the pediatric standard of treatment due to the aggressiveness of my disease and the amount of solid tumor clusters I had at the time in conjunction with bone marrow involvement.

This pediatric chemotherapy regimen is called BEACOPP which is also considered the German standard of treatment. Let’s talk about what BEACOPP stands for: Bleomycin, Etoposide, Adriamycin/Doxorubicin, Cyclophosphamide, Oncovin/Vinchristine, Procarbizine, and Prednisone.

Bleomycin is made by the bacteria (- naturally occurring thing) Streptomycis verticillius. It is also considered a family of glycopeptide anti tumor antibiotics. It was discovered in Tokyo in the 60s. They are commonly known as bleo and pingyangmycin.

Etoposide is a eukaryotic topoisomerase inhibitor and chemical compound derived from natural phenols from plants (a naturally occurring thing). Natural phenols in plants are synthesized when a plant is wounded or phytoalexins-compounds produced by plants to fight off pests.

Doxorubicin is an anthracycline antitumor antibiotic. It is made from the bacteria Streptomyces peucetius. Beginning as daunorubicin, it was originally discovered in a soil sample from Castel Del Monte as a soil microbe. However, a strain of Streptomyces was mutated.

This new strain produced a different, red colored antibiotic compound that would be named after the Adriatic Sea Adriamycin but renamed to Doxorubicin.

Cyclophosphamide is what would be considered a nitrogen mustard agent. Did y’all know that the first intravenous chemotherapy treatment was injecting mustard gas into lymphoma patient during WW2 at Yale?

Oncovin/Vinchristine is a vinka alkaloid that comes from the Madagascar periwinkle Catharanthus roseus. It is the chemotherapy that works to stop cells from dividing properly.

Procarbizine is a chemotherapeutic oral medicine that Inhibits mitosis by prolonging the interphase of cell division and causing chromatid breaks in carcinoma cells.

And finally, my personal favorite, Prednisone. A glucocorticoid steroid used to treat high blood calcium due to cancer and adrenal insufficiency. Predisolone comes from cortisone after being microbiologically oxidized by a bacteria called Corynebacterium simplex.

In short, chemotherapy by proxy is considered “natural” by these standards and should be regarded as so by internet conspiracy theorists. Don’t forget that the “wellness” industry makes $3 billion a year off people looking for alternative ways to treat real diseases.

Not only do they profit off cancer patients, but they have a fraction of the regulation that is mandated necessary by the FDA, so sometimes, they kill us too.

@SciencePharmer feel free to make corrections but I think(?) I got most of this right?