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First Detection - 1500 BC
http://cancer.about.com/od/historyofcancer/a/cancerhistory.htmThe world's oldest documented case of cancer hails from ancient Egypt, in 1500 b.c. The details were recorded on a papyrus, documenting 8 cases of tumors occurring on the breast. It was treated by cauterization, a method to destroy tissue with a hot instrument called "the fire drill. -
400
400 BC: Hippocrates uses the term karcinos to describe tumors. Karcinos evolved into cancer.
Hippocrates, the great Greek physician (460-370 B.C), the first person to clearly recognize difference between benign and malignant tumors. His writings include description of cancers involving various body sites. Hippocrates noticed that blood vessels around a malignant tumor looked like the claws of crab. He named the disease karkinos (the Greek name for crab) to describe tumors that may or may not progress to ulceration. In English this term translates to carcinoma. -
1600 BC: The oldest known description and surgical treatment of cancer was discovered in Egypt.
The Papyrus describes 8 cases of ulcers of the breast that were treated by cauterization, with a tool called "the fire drill." The writing says about the disease, "There is no treatment." -
1900-1600BC: The oldest available specimen of a human cancer is found in the remains of skull of a female who lived during the Bronze Age.
The tumor in the womens skull was suggestive of head and neck cancer. -
In 1761, Giovanni Morgagni of Padua was the first to perform autopsies to relate the patient's illness to their pathologic findings postmortem.
Cancer could be now detected, even after death -
Anesthesia becomes widely available. Surgery to remove tumors takes off.
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Marie Curie and Pierre Curie discovered radiation at the end of the 19th century
They stumbled upon the first effective non-surgical cancer treatment. With radiation also came the first signs of multi-disciplinary approaches to cancer treatment. The surgeon was no longer operating in isolation, but worked together with hospital radiologists to help patients. -
Urinary cytology, the examination of cells and other materials in urine, was used by George N. Papinicolaou and Victor F. Marshall to diagnose cancer of the bladder.
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MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN CANCER RESEARCH
In 1947, while conducting research at the Institute, Professor David Galton became the first physician in the world to use aminopterin in the treatment of adult leukaemia, producing remission in some cancer patients. Haddow established a Clinical Chemotherapy Research Unit in partnership with the Royal Marsden Hospital.The unit led to the Institute's discovery of three successful chemotherapy drugs: busulphan (Myleran), chlorambucil (Leukeran) and melphalan (Alkeran).[3] -
A sensitive enzyme immunoassay made to detect Prostate-specific Antigen (PSA), was created as a possible diagnostic method for prostate cancer by Kuriyama et al.
Prostate-specific Antigen (PSA), a tumor marker that may be found in higher concentrations in the blood of those with prostate cancer, -
Sonohysterography, a radioimaging method that is used in diagnosis of cancer of the endometrium and uterus, was developed by Drs. Parsons and Lense.
In this technique, fluid is used to expand the uterus and an ultrasound probe is inserted into the vagina -
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN CANCER RESEARCH
Researches breakthrought to treat their chronic lymhocytic leukemia was after chemotherapy to decrease the volume of lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell), the patients received infusions of CART19 T cells, originally from their own immune system. In the patient case discussed, at less than one month after treatment, there was already no residual CLL in the bone marrow and complete resolution of multiple enlarged lymph nodes.
