*Konstantine Panegyres is a historian and researcher at the University of Melbourne, Australia. The text below originally appeared on the website The Conversation, which publishes articles written by researchers and which has a Brazilian version. Worth the visit.
One of the first descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the 4th century BC Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heraclea, on the Black Sea, developed cancer between the groin and scrotum. As the cancer spread, Satyrus was in increasing pain. He couldn’t sleep and had convulsions.
Advanced cancers in this part of the body were considered inoperable, and there were no drugs strong enough to ease the agony. Therefore, the doctors could do nothing. Ultimately, cancer took Satyrus’ life at the age of 65.
Cancer was already well known at that time. A text written in the late 5th or early 4th century BC called Diseases of Women described the development of breast cancer:
“[…] hard growths form […] from them, hidden cancers develop […] pain rises from patients’ breasts to the throat and around the shoulder blades […] these patients become thin throughout the body […] breathing slows down, sense of smell is lost […]”
Other medical works from this period describe different types of cancers. A woman from the Greek city of Abdera died of breast cancer; A man with throat cancer survived after his doctor burned the tumor.
Continues after advertising
Where does the word “cancer” come from?
The word cancer originates from the same time. In the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC, doctors used the word karkinos – the ancient Greek word for crab – to describe malignant tumors. 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 that the crab is an aggressive animal, just as cancer can be an aggressive disease; another explanation was that the crab can grab a 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). But some say that it is so called because it sticks to any part on which it clings in an obstructive way, like the crab. Others thought it was because of the appearance of the tumor.
The physician Galen (129-216 AD) described breast cancer in his work A Method of Medicine to Glaucon and compared the shape of the tumor to the shape of a crab:
Continues after advertising
“We often see a tumor in the breasts that looks exactly like a crab. Just as this animal has feet on both sides of the body, so in this disease the veins of unnatural swelling are stretched on both sides, creating a crab-like shape.”
Not everyone agrees on the cause of 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 humors: blood, yellow bile, phlegm and black bile. These four humors need to be kept in a balanced state, otherwise the person becomes sick. If a person suffered from excess black bile, it was believed that this would eventually lead to cancer.
The physician Erasistratus, who lived around 315 to 240 BC, disagreed. However, as far as we know, he did not offer an alternative explanation.
How was cancer treated in the past?
Cancer was treated in several different ways. It was believed that cancers in their early stages could be cured with medication.
Continues after advertising
These medicines included drugs derived from plants (such as cucumber, daffodil bulb, castor bean, bitter vetch, cabbage); animals (like the ash of a crab); and metals (such as arsenic).
Galen claimed that by using this type of medicine and repeatedly purging his patients with emetics or enemas, he was sometimes able to make emerging cancers disappear. He said the same treatment sometimes stopped more advanced cancers from continuing to grow. However, he also said surgery is necessary if these medications don’t work.
Surgery was generally avoided as patients tended to die from blood loss. The most successful operations were on cancers at the tip of the breast. Leonidas, a physician who lived between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, described his method, which involved cauterization (burning):
“I generally operate in cases where the tumors do not extend into the chest […] When the patient is placed on her back, I make an incision in the healthy area of the breast above the tumor and then cauterize the incision until scabs form and the bleeding stops. I then make a new incision, delimiting the area as I make a deep cut into the breast, and cauterize it again. I do this [incisão e cauterização] quite often […] This way, the bleeding is not dangerous. Once the excision is complete, I re-cauterize the entire area until it is dry.”
Continues after advertising
Cancer was generally considered an incurable disease and was therefore feared. Some people with cancer, such as the poet Silius Italicus (26-102 AD), died by suicide to end the torment.
Patients also prayed to the gods for hope of healing. An example of this is Innocentia, an aristocratic lady who lived in Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia) in the 5th century AD. She told her doctor that divine intervention had cured her breast cancer, although the doctor did not believe her.
The past and future of cancer
We start with Satyrus, a 4th-century BC tyrant. In the roughly 2,400 years that have passed since then, much has changed in our knowledge about what causes cancer, how to prevent it, and how to treat it. We also know that there are more than 200 different types of cancer. Some people’s cancer is treated so successfully that they live a long life.
But there is still no “general cure for cancer,” a disease that about one in five people develop during their lifetime. In 2022 alone, there were an estimated 20 million new cases of cancer and 9.7 million cancer deaths worldwide. It is clear that we have a long way to go.
Continues after advertising
