Close Menu
    What's Hot

    Crazy Viral: Sanjay Dutt's LOL Moment On His Whiskey Label's Second Anniversary

    July 1, 2025

    Rupali Ganguly Shares Unseen Pics With Aamir Khan, Praises Brother Vijay For His Work In Sitaare Zameen Par

    July 1, 2025

    Why Do Ships Fear This Ocean Route?

    July 1, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    N24India
    • Home
    • Features
    • Politics

      Kashmir Attack Sparks Media Storm Amid Political Blame Game

      April 23, 2025

      Religious Bias Allegations Rock Amazon, eBay, and Oracle Customer Support many Companies.

      January 10, 2025

      Feroz Khan Addresses Controversy with AIMIM MLA, Calls for Improved Road Infrastructure in Asifnagar -N24india

      October 7, 2024

      Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Sparks Outrage with Hate Speech Against Prophet Muhammad: Calls for Legal Action Intensify

      October 5, 2024

      Drugs, Baby Oil, Video Tools: What Went On At Rapper Diddy's "Freak Offs"

      September 23, 2024
    • Science
      1. Politics
      2. Lifestyle
      3. Sports
      4. View All

      Kashmir Attack Sparks Media Storm Amid Political Blame Game

      April 23, 2025

      Religious Bias Allegations Rock Amazon, eBay, and Oracle Customer Support many Companies.

      January 10, 2025

      Feroz Khan Addresses Controversy with AIMIM MLA, Calls for Improved Road Infrastructure in Asifnagar -N24india

      October 7, 2024

      Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Sparks Outrage with Hate Speech Against Prophet Muhammad: Calls for Legal Action Intensify

      October 5, 2024

      Crazy Viral: Sanjay Dutt's LOL Moment On His Whiskey Label's Second Anniversary

      July 1, 2025

      Rupali Ganguly Shares Unseen Pics With Aamir Khan, Praises Brother Vijay For His Work In Sitaare Zameen Par

      July 1, 2025

      How Shefali Jariwala's Kaanta Laga Made Tattoos The Ultimate Cool For Millennials

      July 1, 2025

      "Shefali Jariwala Took An IV Drip On Day Of Her Death, Had A Pulse When Parag Found Her Motionless": Close Friend Pooja Ghai

      July 1, 2025

      Watch Weightlifting at Paris 2024 – Follow the Olympic Games

      July 15, 2024

      Charlotte Hornets Makes Career-high 34 Points in Loss to Utah Jazz

      July 15, 2024

      Young Teen Sucker-punches Opponent During Basketball Game

      March 12, 2021

      Bills’ Josh Allen Finishes Second in NFL Most Valuable Player Voting

      January 18, 2021

      World’s first electric hydrofoil ship is coming to Saudi Arabia’s NEOM

      August 21, 2024

      World’s Tiniest Fanged Frogs Lay Their Eggs on Leaves and Guard Them

      July 15, 2024

      Get this 4K HD Dual-Camera Drone with WiFi for $75

      July 15, 2024

      Russian Satellite Breaks up in Space, Forces ISS Astronauts to Shelter

      July 15, 2024
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    N24India
    Home»Politics»Why Is Cancer Called Cancer? Tracing The Origins Of The Word
    Politics

    Why Is Cancer Called Cancer? Tracing The Origins Of The Word

    AdminBy AdminMay 6, 2024No Comments6 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email


    One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, developed a cancer between his groin and scrotum. As the cancer spread, Satyrus had ever greater pains. He was unable to sleep and had convulsions.

    Advanced cancers in that part of the body were regarded as inoperable, and there were no drugs strong enough to alleviate the agony. So doctors could do nothing. Eventually, the cancer took Satyrus’ life at the age of 65.

    Cancer was already well known in this period. A text written in the late fifth or early fourth century BC, called Diseases of Women, described how breast cancer develops:

    hard growths form […] out of them hidden cancers develop […] pains shoot up from the patients’ breasts to their throats, and around their shoulder blades […] such patients become thin through their whole body […] breathing decreases, the sense of smell is lost […]

    Other medical works of this period describe different sorts of cancers. A woman from the Greek city of Abdera died from a cancer of the chest; a man with throat cancer survived after his doctor burned away the tumour.

    Where does the word ‘cancer’ come from?

    The word cancer comes from the same era. In the late fifth and early fourth century BC, doctors were using the word karkinos – the ancient Greek word for crab – to describe malignant tumours. Later, when Latin-speaking doctors described the same disease, they used the Latin word for crab: cancer. So, the name stuck.

    Even in ancient times, people wondered why doctors named the disease after an animal. One explanation was the crab is an aggressive animal, just as cancer can be an aggressive disease; another explanation was the crab can grip one part of a person’s body with its claws and be difficult to remove, just as cancer can be difficult to remove once it has developed. Others thought it was because of the appearance of the tumour.

    The physician Galen (129-216 AD) described breast cancer in his work A Method of Medicine to Glaucon, and compared the form of the tumour to the form of a crab:

    We have often seen in the breasts a tumour exactly like a crab. Just as that animal has feet on either side of its body, so too in this disease the veins of the unnatural swelling are stretched out on either side, creating a form similar to a crab.

    Not everyone agreed what caused cancer

    In the Greco-Roman period, there were different opinions about the cause of cancer.

    According to a widespread ancient medical theory, the body has four humours: blood, yellow bile, phlegm and black bile. These four humours need to be kept in a state of balance, otherwise a person becomes sick. If a person suffered from an excess of black bile, it was thought this would eventually lead to cancer.

    The physician Erasistratus, who lived from around 315 to 240 BC, disagreed. However, so far as we know, he did not offer an alternative explanation.

    How was cancer treated?

    Cancer was treated in a range of different ways. It was thought that cancers in their early stages could be cured using medications.

    These included drugs derived from plants (such as cucumber, narcissus bulb, castor bean, bitter vetch, cabbage); animals (such as the ash of a crab); and metals (such as arsenic).

    Galen claimed that by using this sort of medication, and repeatedly purging his patients with emetics or enemas, he was sometimes successful at making emerging cancers disappear. He said the same treatment sometimes prevented more advanced cancers from continuing to grow. However, he also said surgery is necessary if these medications do not work.

    Surgery was usually avoided as patients tended to die from blood loss. The most successful operations were on cancers of the tip of the breast. Leonidas, a physician who lived in the second and third century AD, described his method, which involved cauterising (burning):

    I usually operate in cases where the tumours do not extend into the chest […] When the patient has been placed on her back, I incise the healthy area of the breast above the tumour and then cauterize the incision until scabs form and the bleeding is stanched. Then I incise again, marking out the area as I cut deeply into the breast, and again I cauterize. I do this [incising and cauterizing] quite often […] This way the bleeding is not dangerous. After the excision is complete I again cauterize the entire area until it is dessicated.

    Cancer was generally regarded as an incurable disease, and so it was feared. Some people with cancer, such as the poet Silius Italicus (26-102 AD), died by suicide to end the torment.

    Patients would also pray to the gods for hope of a cure. An example of this is Innocentia, an aristocratic lady who lived in Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia) in the fifth century AD. She told her doctor divine intervention had cured her breast cancer, though her doctor did not believe her.

    From the past into the future

    We began with Satyrus, a tyrant in the fourth century BC. In the 2,400 years or so since then, much has changed in our knowledge of what causes cancer, how to prevent it and how to treat it. We also know there are more than 200 different types of cancer. Some people’s cancers are so successfully managed, they go on to live long lives.

    But there is still no general “cure for cancer”, a disease that about one in five people develop in their lifetime. In 2022 alone, there were about 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million cancer deaths globally. We clearly have a long way to go.

    Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



    Original Source

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Admin
    • Website

    Related Posts

    Kashmir Attack Sparks Media Storm Amid Political Blame Game

    April 23, 2025

    Religious Bias Allegations Rock Amazon, eBay, and Oracle Customer Support many Companies.

    January 10, 2025

    Feroz Khan Addresses Controversy with AIMIM MLA, Calls for Improved Road Infrastructure in Asifnagar -N24india

    October 7, 2024

    Comments are closed.

    Advertisement
    Demo
    Latest Posts

    Crazy Viral: Sanjay Dutt's LOL Moment On His Whiskey Label's Second Anniversary

    July 1, 2025

    Rupali Ganguly Shares Unseen Pics With Aamir Khan, Praises Brother Vijay For His Work In Sitaare Zameen Par

    July 1, 2025

    Why Do Ships Fear This Ocean Route?

    July 1, 2025

    How Shefali Jariwala's Kaanta Laga Made Tattoos The Ultimate Cool For Millennials

    July 1, 2025
    Trending Posts
    Business & Economy

    Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc Speaks to ‘Massive Impact’ of the Red Sea Situation

    January 20, 2021
    Sports

    Review: Can Wisconsin Clinch the Big Ten West this Weekend

    January 15, 2021
    Biotech

    These Knee Braces Help With Arthritis Pain, Swelling, and Post-Surgery Recovery

    January 15, 2021

    Subscribe to News

    Get the latest sports news from NewsSite about world, sports and politics.

    Your source for the serious news. This demo is crafted specifically to exhibit the use of the theme as a news site. Visit our main page for more demos.

    We're social. Connect with us:

    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest YouTube

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Home
    • Hyderabad
    • Telengana
    • Lifestyle
      • Science
    • Politics
      • Asia
      • Europe
      • World
    • Middle East
    • Sports
    • Home
    • Blog
    • Homepage
    • Typography Elements
    • Get In Touch
    • Our Authors
    © 2025 ThemeSphere. Designed by ThemeSphere.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.