Category Archives: historical

Cancer Historical Perspectives

The Common vein

Copyright 2009

Cancer – History

Cancer has afflicted humans for centuries and knowledge gathered in earlier centuries laid a background for knowledge we have today. Cancer is derived from terms carcinos or carcinoma, which literally mean crab and was first used by Celsus. Galen used “oncos” to describe all tumors. (Karpozilos) Interestingly the earliest reports of cancer are found in Egypt in 1500 BC in on Papyrus documents describing eight patients with tumor of the breast. These documents describe tumors as incurable and local thermal cauterization as a palliative measures.  There were multiple theories of what causes cancer, Ancient Egyptian believed it was caused by gods while Hippocrates blamed the imbalances in the balance of human body. It has taken many centuries to discern what causes cancer and even today the knowledge is far from complete. The modern oncology practice has made tremendous strides. Some cancers are now curable and a multitude of clinical trials are currently ongoing.