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100
Earliest Recorded Cancer Detection 1,500 BC
The earliest recorded detection of cancer was in 1500 b.c. in Egypt. This detection was recorded on a papyrus explaining cases of tumors on the breast. It was treated by cauterization, a method to destroy tissue with a hot instrument. -
100
Stone Age Surgery
The first evidence of surgery is trepanned skulls from the stone age. Some adults had holes cut in their skulls. -
15th-17th Centuries Breast Cancer
The German professor Wilhelm Fabry believed that breast cancer was caused by a milk clot in a mammary duct. -
1895 Radiation Therapy
Medicine has used radiation therapy as a treatment for cancer for more than 100 years, with its earliest roots in 1895 performed by Wilhelm Röntgen. -
1929 Lung Cancer
In 1929, Fritz Lickint, a German physician first recognized the potential connection between smoking and lung cancer. This discovery led to a nationwide anti-tobacco movement in then Nazi Germany. These discoveries were primarily based on statistical data and the number of cancer cases among smokers. -
1940 Chemotherapy
The first use of chemotherapy for cancer came as a result of the US Department of Defense's attempt to find therapeutic uses for mustard gas, a chemical warfare agent. -
1954 Transplantation
The first kidney transplant between living patients was undertaken in 1954 in Boston. The Boston transplantation, performed on December 23, 1954, at Brigham Hospital was performed by Joseph Murray, J. Hartwell Harrson, John P. Merrill and others. The procedure was done between identical twins Richard and Ronald Herrick to eliminate any problems of an immune reaction. Murray received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1990. -
1969 Mammogram (Breast Cancer)
Modern mammography has only existed since 1969. Modern mammogram equipment designed for breast x-rays uses very low levels of radiation, usually about a 0.1 to 0.2 rad dose per x-ray (a rad is a measure of radiation dose). -
2008 First Cancer Vaccine
On April 8, 2008, New York-based company Antigenics announced that it had received approval for the first therapeutic cancer vaccine in Russia. The treatment, Oncophage, increased recurrence-free survival by a little more than a year according to the results of a phase III clinical trial. -
2008 Cancer
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 7.6 million deaths (around 13% of all deaths) in 2008. -
2012 Lymphoma Patients With Chemotherapy
A trial led by the NCIC Clinical Trials Group found that patients with limited-stage Hodgkin lymphoma live longer when treated with standard chemotherapy compared with those who are also receiving radiation. -
2012 Vitamin D Affecting Cancer Growth
Dr. John White and his research group in Montreal studied a protein called the cMYC protein, which is elevated in at least 50 per cent of cancers. Researchers found that vitamin D can block cMYC. This evidence will spark future studies to understand the role Vitamin D plays in stopping cancer development and growth.
