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When was cancer first distroyed?

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Anonymous

16y ago
Updated: 8/16/2019

The oldest description of human cancer was found in an Egyptian papyri written between 3000-1500 BC. It referred to tumors of the breast. The oldest specimen of a human cancer was found in the remains of a female skull dating back to the Bronze Age (1900-1600 BC).The mummified skeletal remains of Peruvian Incas, dating back 2400 years ago, contained lesions suggestive of malignant melanoma. And cancer was found in fossilized bones and manuscripts of ancient Egypt. Cancer is not a disease of our modern industrialized age, as some may have believed at one time. One of the earliest human cancers found in the remains of mummies was a bone cancer suggestive of osteosarcoma. Louis Leakey found the oldest possible hominid malignant tumor in 1932 from the remains of lower limb bone of a Homo erectus. This tumor was suggestive of a Burkitt's lymphoma (although that nomenclature was certainly not in use then). Diseases that we know to be rare cancers today have had a long history. Hippocrates is credited with being the first to recognize the difference between benign and malignant tumors. His writings describe cancers of many body sites. The swollen blood vessels around the malignant tumors so reminded him of crab claws, he called the disease karkinos (the Greek name for crab). In English this term translates to carcinos or carcinoma.

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Wiki User

16y ago

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