ORIGIN OF THE TERM "CANCER"

Zodiac Sign from Arabic Manuscript

The Greek physician Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.) first used the "terms carcinos and carcinoma to describe non-ulcer forming and ulcer-forming tumors. In Greek, these words refer to a crab, most likely applied to the disease because the finger-like spreading projections from a cancer called to mind the shape of a crab" ("The History of Cancer," par. 5). In the article "Cancer in Antiquity. Lessons of Celsus," A.J. Fabre writes that the term was used in medical texts from antiquity. He refers to a passage in Aulus Cornelius Celsus's (28-50 B.C.) De Medicina (V 28.2), in which Celsus describes a number of different conditions, some of which clearly refer to cancerous growths. Bill Thayer’s reproduction of a section of Celsus’s De Medicina explains further in the following passage:

Malignant Disease.— Although in a number of passages Celsus clearly refers to superficial malignant disease, [Celsus’] name for it is carcinoma or carcinode. In the principal passage about it he starts by saying that it is not very dangerous unless interfered with by injudicious treatment, but goes on to mention a more dangerous form which he describes as cacoethes (κακοήθες), malignant, using the Greek adjective which is often applied to the disease by Hippocrates. For this variety alone he suggests operative treatment though he gives no details. (par. 8)

Celsus was to later translate Hippocrates terms for the disease to cancer. The later Roman physician Galen (130-200 A.D.) is known for his work with tumorous growths. He "excised tumors and infected bone, and resectioned ribs and sternums. Like Hippocrates, he believed cancer was best left alone" ("Closing in on Cancer," NCI, par. 10):

[Galen] used the word oncos (Greek for swelling) to describe tumors. Although the crab analogy of Hippocrates and Celsus is still used to describe malignant tumors, Galen's term is now used as a part of the name for cancer specialists -- oncologists. ("The History of Cancer," par. 5)

Fabre writes that cancer in antiquity was probably no different from the cancer that we know: "All available data suggest that cancer, from the origins of humanity, was present all over the world but there is still no clear answer to the question of an eventual change in cancer frequency over the past 2000 years. A new field of research remains wide open to give answers to this crucial interrogation" (Fabre, par. 1).