The History of Oncology

Despite recent breakthroughs by the medical community, cancer continues to be a serious health threat. Luckily, advances in medicine and research over the years have yielded admirable results, as the number of cancer survivors who avoid recurrence continues to grow. Success in treating the various forms of cancer is due to the advent of oncology (the study and treatment of cancerous growths), a field whose history began with questions and experiments.

Early Days

• The earliest known treatments of cancer are dated to around 1600 B.C., when Egyptian physicians recognized and surgically removed breast tumors from patients, claiming on ancient scrolls that "there is no treatment "for this disease. Their findings, however, laid the groundwork for future physicians, mainly Hippocrates ("the father of medicine"), who around 400 B.C. first used the word "carcinos" to describe the tumors. That word has since developed into "carcinoma," used by oncologists to describe various cancerous growths.

Taking Shape

• In the Roman Empire, physicians Celus and later Galen coined the term "cancer," meaning "crab," to describe the illness, probably because the projections from a spreading cancer suggested the shape of a crab. It was Galen who used the Roman word "oncos" (swelling) in relation to the tumors, thus giving birth later to "oncology" as it is named today. Treatment remained the same, usually surgery, to remove the tumors.

Understanding

• During Europe's Renaissance period, Galileo and Newton both contributed to the science of anatomy, laying the groundwork for future physicians like Italy's Giovanni Morgagni, who in 1761 began to use autopsies to determine cause of death. Unknowingly, his discoveries led to researchers' understanding of how tumors develop. Scotland's John Hunter pioneered surgery on tumors at the end of the 18th century, a preferred method once anesthesia arrived a few decades later.

Into the Modern Age

• The 19th century saw many advancements in cancer research, leading to the actual field of study of oncology. The development of the microscope enabled researcher Rudolf Virchow to study the growth of the tumors on a cellular level, as the cancer pathology grew in leaps and bounds. Thanks to Virchow and others like him, pathologists contributed to oncology by giving the budding cancer surgeons exact information on the growth pattern of the tumors.

Oncology Today

• Throughout its history, physicians blamed cancer on everything from the gods to parasites to decomposing cells. It wasn't until the discovery of DNA's impact on irregular cell mutations that oncology began to grasp the basis of cancer. Some had believed that cancer was caused by certain external agents (carcinogens), but now scientists had a foothold on discovering the origin of the disease. Today, oncology continues to research cancer, implementing new anti-cancer drugs for chemotherapy, understanding correct radiological dosage, and identifying over 100 known environmental, chemical, and physical cancer triggers.