After toxicity and efficacy trials seemed to show that it did some good, at least in the short run, the FDA gave the drug its seal of approval. Chemotherapy prevents cells from dividing by fooling cellular DNA into accepting a chain-terminator into the DNA chain. Now the train cannot expand beyond the caboose because there's nothing to hook onto. The problem with chemotherapy is that it stops all cells from dividing, not just cancer cells. Science hasn't been able to figure out a way for it to zero in on the cancer exclusively.
Cancer cells divide rapidly, but so do stomach cells and bone-marrow cells and lots of other cells.
The formation of new DNA chains is stopped within all of them. That's why long-term chemotherapy is very destructive. Nonetheless, about 100,000 people are now taking it. And Schmalz told me that the drug had saved his life. Surprisingly, they have not.