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First Case of Cancer 1500 b.c.
The 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." It was also recorded that there was no treatment for the disease, only palliative treatment. -
First Found Cause of Cancer
The first cause of cancer was identified by British surgeon Percivall Pott, who discovered in 1775 that cancer of the scrotum was a common disease among chimney sweeps. The work of other individual physicians led to various insights, but when physicians started working together they could draw firmer conclusions. -
Discovery of Anesthesia
1846: Anesthesia becomes widely available. Surgery to remove tumors takes off. -
X-Rays
X-rays discovered. -
Discovery Of Radiation
When 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. The complications in communication this brought, along with the necessity of the patient's treatment in a hospital facility rather th -
Chemotherapy
1919: A chemical in the mustard gas used during World War I is found to reduce white blood cells. Chemotherapy is born. -
First Chemo Success
1947: Chemotherapy records its first, though temporary, success with the remission of a pediatric leukemia patient. -
Found Causes
A founding paper of cancer epidemiology was the work of Janet Lane-Claypon, who published a comparative study in 1926 of 500 breast cancer cases and 500 control patients of the same background and lifestyle for the British Ministry of Health. Her ground-breaking work on cancer epidemiology was carried on by Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill, who published "Lung Cancer and Other Causes of Death In Relation to Smoking. A Second Report on the Mortality of British Doctors" followed in 1956 (othe -
Smoking Causes Cancer
1964: A U.S. Surgeon General's report estabishes an undeniable link between smoking and cancer. -
Abnormalities with Chromosomes
1973: Janet Rowley, M.D., shows chromosome abnormalities in those with cancer. -
Cancer Death Rates
Early 1990s: For the first time, overall cancer death rates begin to fall. -
Cancer Survivors Increase
2012: Cancer survivors reach 12 million, a fourfold increase since 1971 and a 20 percent increase since 2001.
