Leukemia in History
The term “leukemia” comes from the Greek words “leukos” and “heima,” also meaning “white blood”. 
The first diagnosis of leukemia was in 1845 by Dr. John Hughes Benett.
Interestingly, the husband-and-wife tandem of Pierre Curie and Marie Curie, whose extensive research on radioactivity won them the Nobel Prize for Physics, exhibited symptoms of leukemia. They unknowingly exposed themselves to the harmful effects of radiation. Marie Curie died of leukemia in 1934. Her daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie, who also became a noted scientist, died of leukemia in 1956 after an accidental exposure to polonium ten years earlier.