The following list does not pretend to be complete, however, it serves as a good sampling of what was going on with ara C during the 1950s and 1960s. The articles address the synthesis of ara C, inhibition of DNA synthesis, ara C's metabolism in bacteria and in mammalian cancer cell lines, antitumor properties first in mice and then in humans, including children with ALL.
| Title of article | Authors | Journal and date |
| Cyclization during the phosphorylation of uridine and cytidine by polyphosphoric acid: a new route to the 2, 2'-cyclonucleosides | Walwick,E. R.; Roberts, W. K.; Dekker, C. A. | Proc. Chem. Soc. 1959, 84. |
| Metabolism of pyrimidine arabinonucleosides and cyclonucleosides in E. Coli. | Pizer, Lewis I.; Cohen, Seymour S. | Journal of Biological Chemistry, 1960, 235, 2387-92. |
| Novel synthesis of "spongo" nucleosides. | Reist, Elmer J.; Osiecki, Jeanne H.; Goodman, Leon; Baker, V. R. | JACS, 1961, 83, 2208-10. |
| Antitumor activity of 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine hydrochloride. | Evans, John S.; Musser, Elizabeth A.; Mengel, Gordon D.; Forsblad, Karin R.; Hunter, James H. | Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 1961, 106, 350-3. |
| A proposed mechanism of action of 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine as an inhibitor of the growth of leukemic cells. | Chu, M. Y.; Fischer, G. A. | Biochemical Pharmacology 1962, 11, 423-30. |
| A new agent active in the treatment of acute leukemia: cytosine arabinoside | Bernard J, Boiron M, Jacquillat C, Weil M, Najean Y. | Presse Med. 1966 Mar 26;74(16):799-802. French. |
| Chemotherapy of leukemia L1210 in mice with 1-beta-d-arabinofuranosylcytosine hydrochloride. I. Influence of treatment schedules. | Kline I, Venditti JM, Tyrer DD, Goldin A. | Cancer Res. 1966 May; 26(5):853-9. |
| Arabinofuranosylcytosine-induced stimulation of thymidine kinase and deoxycytidylic deaminase activities of mammalian cultures. | Kit S, De Torres RA, Dubbs DR. | Cancer Res. 1966 Sep;26(9):1859-66. |
| Chemotherapy of leukemia L1210 in mice with 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine hydrochloride. II. Effectiveness against intracerebrally and subcutaneously inoculated leukemic cells. | Kline I, Venditti JM, Tyrer DD, Mantel N, Goldin A. | Cancer Res. 1966 Sep;26(9):1930-7. |
| Biochemical and pharmacological studies with 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine in man. | Biochem Pharmacol. 1966 Oct;15(10):1417-28. | |
| Cytosine arabinoside (NSC-63878) in acute leukemia in children. | Howard JP, Cevik N, Murphy ML. | Cancer Chemother Rep. 1966 Jul; 50(5):287-91. |
| Experimental evaluation of potential anticancer agents. XXI. Scheduling of arabinosylcytosine to take advantage of its S-phase specificity against leukemia cells. | Skipper HE, Schabel FM Jr, Wilcox WS. | Cancer Chemother Rep. 1967 Jun;51(3):125-65. |
| Inhibition of DNA polymerase by beta-D-arabinosylcytosine and reversal of inhibition by deoxycytidine-5’-triphosphate. | Kimball A P; Wilson M J. | Proc. of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. 1968 Feb., 127 (2), 429-32. |
| Synthetic studies of potential antimetabolites. XI. Syntheses of beta-D-pentofuranosyl-5-methylcytosines. | Mizuno Y, Ueda T; Ikeda K; Miura K. | Chemical and pharmaceutical bulletin (1968 Feb), 16 (2), 262-8. |
| Mammalian deoxynucleoside kinase. I. Deoxycytidine kinase: purification, properties, and kinetic studies with cytosine arabinoside. | Momparler R L; Fischer G A. | J. of Biological Chemistry, 1968 Aug 25, 243 (16), 4298-304. |
| Uptake and phosphorylation of cytosine arabinoside by normal and leukemic human blood cells in vitro. | Kessell D; Hall T C, Rosenthal D. | Cancer research, 1969 Feb, 29 (2), 459-63. |
| Drug effect in acute leukemia. | Lampkin B C; Nagao T; Mauer A M. | Journal of clinical investigation, 1969 Jun, 48 (6), 1124-30. |
| Cytosine arabinoside (NSC-63878) therapy for acute leukemia in adults. *This is an important and often-cited article. | Bodey GP, Freireich EJ, Monto RW, Hewlett JS. | Cancer Chemother Rep. 1969 Feb;53(1):59-66. |
| The effect of cytosine arabinoside on nucleic acid synthesis in normal and leukaemic human leucocytes in vitro. | Chan B W | Acta haematologica (1969), 41(6), 321-7. |
| Chemotherapy and the life cycle of leukaemic cells. A comparison between the growth characteristics of human acute leukaemia and the murine leukaemia L 1210. | Benckhuijsen C. | Folia medica Neerlandica, 1969 Dec 2, 12 (2), 74-84. |
| The treatment of acute leukaemia with cytosine arabinoside: biochemical and clinical findings. | Wilmanns W; Mainzer K; Muller D; Talke H; Hennekeuser HH. | German medical monthly, 1969 Jul, 14 (7), 317-24. |
| Cytotoxic effects of 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosyl-5-fluorocytosine and of 1-beta-D-arabinofurano-sylcytosine in prolifrating tissued in mice. | Cancer research, 1969 Oct, 29 (10), 1790-8. | |
| Review of recent studies of cellular proliferation in acute leukemia. | Clarkson B D | National Cancer Institute monograph (1969 May), 30 81-120. |
| Chemical and enzymatic synthesis of 1-(beta-D-arabinofuranosyl)thiamine. | Zinchenko, A. I.; Barai, V. N.; Bokut, S. B.; Kvasyuk, E. I.; Mikhailopulo, I. A. Khimiya | Prirodnykh Soedinenii, 1989, (4), 587-8. |