Unexpected discovery of cancer since ancient times

Cancer in the past is thought to be caused by stasis, excess gold bile. Many ancient doctors treated by burning diseased organs or cutting off cancer organs.

At present, cancer is becoming a serious disease and there is no definitive treatment. Researchers turn to history and find that in ancient times, many fossil evidence of humans showing the oldest cancer cells date back to ancient Egypt and Greece.

The first patients

According to the documents of the American Cancer Society, humans and animals have had cancer long ago. The earliest evidence of cancer was found in a fossilized bone tumor of a mummy 1.6-1.8 million years ago, in a cave in South Africa.

Cancer cells in the left toe bone fossils 1.6 to 1.8 million years old. (Photo: Patrick Randolph-Quinney, UCLAN).

However, the number of such ancient cancer cells is also very rare. In 2016, a research team of Professor Michael Zimmerman (Villanova University in Pennsylvania, USA) performed analysis of hundreds of mummies in Egypt.

Among them, only one case of cancer was confirmed. It is colorectal cancer cell. These experiments showed that mummification did not destroy evidence of malignant tumors. Therefore, the rate of ancient people with cancer is very small.

The world's first cancer patient described in the Edwin Smith Paccorus papyrus document. This case occurred 3,000 years ago BC. There are 8 cases of breast cancer.

The papyrus sheet, dating back to 1,500 BC, describes several tumors related to the skin, uterus, stomach, and rectum.

Old Egyptian documents show that the ancients regarded cancer as an incurable disease and linked to the 'curse of the gods'.

This belief continued to be maintained, even by Hippocrates (460-370 BC), who proposed the earliest scientific theory of cancer to accept that cause. He is also considered the father of medicine and the greatest physician in ancient Greek history.

Hippocrates hypothesized that the disease was associated with an excess of black bile. He believes that cancer and, more broadly, any disease, will develop when there is an imbalance of four elements: blood, sputum, yellow bile, and black bile in the body. If black bile stagnates, invades organs, the cancer will develop.

The word cancer is also named by the Greek doctor Hippocrates . In ancient times, it was called " Karkinos " .

Hippocrates uses the terms carcinos and carcinoma to describe swollen and ulcerating tumors. In Greek, these words also imply crab.

Later, the Roman doctor, Celsus (28-50 BC), translated from Greek roots into Latin as cancer (also means crab, also Cancer).

The development of medicine and technology has allowed artificial intelligence to read mammograms and detect cancer. (Photo: NY Times).

Cured by many painful methods

The ancient Egyptians wrote about many spells they used to treat diseases similar to that of cancer. They are all methods of causing pain.

With cervical cancer, they break a stone in water, soak it overnight and place it in the vagina. Or another equally popular method is 'fumigation'. The patient must sit on a fire or something burning.

This is thought to kill off pathogenic cells. However, according to Professor Rosalie David (University of Manchester, UK), the records not only accurately identify the diseases they suffer from cancer, but the research team only indirectly identified through the description of the disease manifestations .

Early Greeks used breast lumpectomy to treat breast cancer. And they also realized the disease could recur and spread to other parts.

Therefore, Greek doctors proposed a poison extracted from plants to kill cancer cells in nearby areas. However, there has been no case to record the results of this approach. It is not clear whether the proposal was implemented or not.

From 500-1,500 AD, there was little progress in understanding cancer. Then, in the sixteenth century, anatomist Andreas Vesalius and a number of other medical doctors proved there was no black bile.

Next, Dr. Paracelsus studied the tumors of mine workers and suggested that the cancer was caused by the accumulation of sulfur and arsenic salts in the blood . These are the first conclusions to show the connection between habitat and cancer.

It was not until the late nineteenth century that medicine realized that cells, even cancer cells, originated from other cells. From there, 6 other theories about the cause of cancer appeared such as trauma, parasites, . Then, German surgeon, Karl Thiersch concluded that the cancer spreads through the evil cells. count.

• Over the centuries, to this day, the cause of cancer remains a mystery for modern humans. However, genetic factors, unhealthy lifestyles accompanied by the effects from the air, toxins are the cause of this disease. People are also trying to find ways to treat it.