Skip to main content

History of Cancer


With COVID-19 grabbing much of the world's attention in the last two years, all other diseases have taken a backseat, yet they remain no less dangerous. One such disease getting buried in the covid hysteria is cancer. The second leading cause of death in the United States, cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases of modern times. A chilling fact is that nearly one in three (33%) Americans will get cancer in their lifetime. The mortality rate is equally grim—an estimated 600,000 people died of cancer in 2020 in the United States alone, nearly double the number of deaths (~350,000 in 2020) attributed to the coronavirus!
Purple ribbon symbol for cancer.

While there's no doubt that the incidence of cancer has increased in recent times, it is by no means a modern disease. Cancer has existed since ancient, even pre-historic times! Paleontologists recently discovered cancer in dinosaur fossils from 70 million years ago. In humans, the earliest evidence of cancer was found in a 1.7 million-year-old bone.

The earliest written record of cancer, not surprisingly, comes from the Egyptians. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, a part of an ancient Egyptian textbook on trauma surgery dating back to 3000 BC, describes eight cases of tumors occurring on the breast. It was also recorded that there was no treatment for the disease, only palliative treatment. Evidence also suggests that ancient Egyptians were able to differentiate between malignant and benign tumors, and surface tumors were surgically removed, much like they are today. Cauterization, which involved destroying tissue with a hot instrument called “the fire drill” was also used to treat tumors. 

Archaeologists have also used a group of cancer-ridden mummies to estimate the prevalence of the disease in ancient times. After finding six cases of cancer in a group of 1087 ancient Egyptian mummies, and assuming the group is a representative population (which I thought was a bit of a stretch), they concluded that the prevalence of cancer was around 1 in 200 cases (6/1087), or about 0.5% of the population got cancer.

Mummy of an ancient Egyptian man with cancer
Bones of a mummy riddled with holes thought to be caused by bone cancer

Today, western societies have a cancer rate of 1 in 2 (50%), which means we are 100 times more likely to get cancer than ancient Egyptians. As ominous as that sounds, it is tempered by the fact that the life expectancy back in those days was much lower than now, and the chances of survival after cancer are much higher today with modern medicine. As we overcome the great pandemic of 2020 (or is it 2019?) with the miracle of modern medicine (thanks in large part to a vaccine that was developed in record time!), here's to finding a cure to that ancient scourge of cancer that continues to plague us today. Perhaps the mRNA technology, the very same medical technology that has brought hope to ending the pandemic, will lead us there!



https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2017.243 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Origin of the Word "Cancer"

In my previous post, I explored the history of cancer. Since we know it existed in ancient times, it follows that so did its name. In fact, the name "cancer" was coined by none other than the great Hippocrates (well, not the exact name but the root of the name). Hippocrates in fact, used two terms,  carcinoma and carcinos,  to describe ulcerous and non-ulcerous tumors respectively. He named the tumors after Carcinus (or Karkinos), a giant crab in Greek mythology that was sent by the Goddess Hera to help Hydra fight against Hercules. As to why Hippocrates chose to name the tumor after a crab is not quite clear but there are several theories:       -  The hardness of a malignant tumor reminded him of the hard shell of a crab.      - The pain induced by a malignant tumor is similar to a sharp pinch of a crab's claw.     -  The tenacity of cancer is similar to the determination with which a crab bites and grabs on to a person.  While all these theories seem plausible, the
Post a Comment
Read more

Hippocrates: Father of Medicine

Another important person in Greek medicine is Hippocrates. Hippocrates is considered the father of modern medicine who continues to influence medicine more than 2000 years later. Although he is as revered as Asclepius, they have very different origins. While Asclepius is a mythological character, considered to be descended from God, Hippocrates is very much a historical figure, whose origin and life is recorded in history. Hippocrates lived from 460 to 375 BCE during the Classical Greece period and practiced medicine in Greece. His contribution to western medicine is rivaled by none other, and his collection of works covers almost every aspect of disease and medicine including infection, hygiene, epidemiology and the human immune system. Bust of Hippocrates Also, unlike Asclepius, Hippocrates practiced medicine as a science, not as divine magic. He was one of the first to separate religion from medicine, and sought to match treatment with symptoms.  His observations in the Corp
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditrinalia: Festival of Health (AKA Wine!)

Happy Meditrinalia! Those who are legally allowed to, raise a glass of your favorite wine in cheer- the goddess of health is smiling upon you today! Meditrinalia is an ancient Roman festival that was celebrated on October 11 in honor of the goddess of medicine, Meditrina. According to legend, the festival marked the end of the vine harvest, and people of Latium began to taste their new wine on this day. Although it was first celebrated in honor of Jupiter, it soon gave rise to a new goddess of  healing/medicine, Meditrina, on whom the festival is now named.  The Romans made an offering of wine to the gods on this occasion while reciting   " vetus novum vinum bibo, novo veteri morbo medeor."   which translates to  ''Wine new and old I drink, of illness new and old I'm cured."  The new wine was thought to hold healing powers. Given that we now know wine is rich in antioxidants, and it can help reduce cholesterol and heart disease, the ancient Romans sure were o
Post a Comment
Read more