Why is cancer called cancer? For the answer we have to go back to Greco-Roman times

One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer dates back to the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, developed one cancer between his groin and scrotum. As the cancer spread, Satyrus suffered increasing pain. He couldn’t sleep and started having convulsions.

Advanced cancers in that part of the body were considered inoperable, and there were no medications strong enough to relieve the pain. So doctors could do nothing. Ultimately, cancer took Satyrus’ life at the age of 65.

Cancer was already common knowledge during this period. A text written in the late fifth or early fourth century BC called Diseases of womendescribed how breast cancer develops:

“Hard growths form […] from this, hidden cancers develop […] The pain shoots up from the patient’s breasts to their throat and around their shoulder blades […] Such patients become thin all over their bodies […] breathing decreases, the sense of smell is lost […]”

Other medical works from this period describe various types of cancer. A woman from the Greek city of Abdera died of breast cancer; a man with throat cancer survived after his doctor burned away the tumor.

Where does the word ‘cancer’ come from?

The word cancer comes from the same era. In the late fifth and early fourth centuries BC, physicians used the word karkinos, ancient Greek word for crab – to describe malignant tumors. Later, when Latin-speaking physicians 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 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 due to the appearance of the tumor.

The physician Galen (129–216 AD) described breast cancer in his work A cure for Glauconand compared the shape of the tumor to the shape of a crab:

“We have often seen in the breasts a tumor exactly like that of a crab. Just as that animal has feet on either side of its body, so in this disease the veins of the unnatural swelling on either side are stretched, causing a shape resembles that of a crab.” to a crab.”

Not everyone agreed on what caused cancer

In Greco-Roman times, there were differing 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. Otherwise, these four humors must be kept in balance someone gets sick. If someone suffered from too much black bile, it was thought that this would eventually lead to cancer.

The physician Erasistratus, who lived from about 315 to 240 BC, disagreed. However, to our knowledge he has not provided an alternative explanation.

How was cancer treated?

Cancer was treated in a series of different ways. It was thought that early-stage cancers could be cured with drugs.

These include medications derived from plants (such as cucumber, daffodil bulb, castor bean, bitter vetch, cabbage); animals (such as a crab’s ash); and metals (such as arsenic).

Galen claimed that by using these types of drugs and repeatedly purging his patients with emetics or enemas, he sometimes succeeded in making emerging cancers disappear. He said the same treatment sometimes prevented more advanced cancers from continuing to grow. However, he also said that surgery is necessary if these medications don’t work.

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

“I usually operate in cases where the tumors do not extend into the chest […] When the patient is placed on her back, I incise the healthy part of the breast above the tumor and then cauterize the incision until scabs form and bleeding is stopped. Then I incise again, mark the area as I cut deeply into the breast, and cauterize again. I’m doing this [incising and cauterizing] quite often […] This way the bleeding is not dangerous. After the excision is complete, I cauterize the entire area again until it is dried out.”

Cancer was widely considered an incurable disease and therefore feared. Some people with cancer, such as the poet Silius Italicus (AD 26–102), 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 fifth century AD. She told her doctor that divine intervention had cured her breast cancer, through her doctor didn’t believe her.

From the past to the future

We started with Satyrus, a tyrant in the fourth century BC. In the approximately 2,400 years 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 200 different types of cancer. Some people’s cancers are treated so successfully that they live long lives.

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

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