Tuesday 25 December 2012

What is Cancer

Cancer begins when cells in a part of the body start to grow out of control. There's plenty of kinds of cancer, but all of them start because of out-of-control growth of abnormal cells
      
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. About one-half of all men & one-third of all ladies in the US will create cancer in the coursework of their lifetimes. Today, millions of people are living with cancer or have had cancer.


DESCRIPTION OF CANCER
Our oldest description of cancer (although the word cancer was not used) was discovered in Egypt and dates back to about 3000 BC. It is called the Edwin Smith Papyrus and is a replica of part of an ancient Egyptian textbook on trauma surgical procedure. It describes 8 cases of tumors or ulcers of the breast that were treated by cauterization with a gizmo called the fire drill. The writing says about the disease,There is no treatment.

Human beings and other animals have had cancer throughout recorded history. So it's no surprise that from the dawn of history people have written about cancer. A number of the earliest facts of cancer is found among fossilized bone tumors, human mummies in ancient Egypt, and ancient manuscripts. Growths suggestive of the bone cancer called osteosarcoma have been seen in mummies. Bony cranium destruction as seen in cancer of the head and neck has been found, .


ORIGIN OF THE WORD
The origin of the word cancer is credited to the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-370 BC), who is thought about the Father of Medicine. Hippocrates used the terms carcinos and carcinoma to report non-ulcer forming and ulcer-forming tumors. In Greek, these words refer to a crab, most likely applied to the illness because the finger-like spreading projections from a cancer called to mind the shape of a crab. The Roman physician, Celsus (28-50 BC), later translated the Greek term in to cancer, the Latin word for crab. Galen (130-200 AD), another Roman physician, used the word oncos (Greek for swelling) to report tumors. Although the crab analogy of Hippocrates and Celsus is still used to report malignant tumors, Galens term is now used as a part of the name for cancer specialists  oncologists.

0 comments:

Post a Comment