Cancer is something that has always plagued humans. Perhaps in the first days of our existence it was less prominent than any other time, but that’s only because most humans would have starved to death or were eaten be something larger and faster before they had a chance to contract cancer. Surly however someone managed to live long enough to have some form of cancer, so technically the very first case of cancer was long before recorded history, and before we had the ability to detect and identify it.
We have been able to unearth some ancient Egyptian bones that had cancerous tumors on them. The oldest to date that we have found was found on a female skull that dated back to the Bronze Age (1900-1600 BC). Louis Leakey found the oldest tumor ever in 1932 but the remains were that of an Australopithecus (like Lucy).
There have been many references to cancer throughout the ages. Hippocrates described several kinds of cancer in ancient Greece. Treatment consisted of diet, blood-letting and laxatives until the 19th century, that’s when we discovered cells. In the 16th and 17th centuries the dissection of bodies became popular to determine the cause of death. Many theories came from these autopsies few were anywhere close to accurate. Surgery began for breast cancer patients in the 18th century but even renowned Scottish surgeon Alexander Monro only saw 2 out of 60 patients survive the surgery due to poor hygienic conditions.
The discovery of cells was vastly important, it helped understand just what cancer is and also helped lead to radiation therapy. It was also around this time that causes of cancer were identified, in 1775 it was determined that cancer of the scrotum was common among chimney sweeps for example.
Check this link out for more information.
http://medicineworld.org/cancer/history.html
