# When was cancer first "discovered"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-cancer-first-discovered/541838 "2010-06-03T21:28:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diamonds02](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Diamonds02](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diamonds02)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-cancer-first-discovered/541838/1 "2010-06-03T21:28:25Z")
When did the disease of cancer started to be recognized as such? Did cancer always exist in humans? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-cancer-first-discovered/541838/2 "2010-06-03T21:46:48Z")
It’s clearly always existed in humans (and all other animals), though I can’t really cite that. [It’s been known for thousands of years](http://www.cancer.org/docroot/cri/content/cri_2_6x_the_history_of_cancer_72.asp). (Short version of the salient details from that link - mention of cancer treatment is found in Egyptian records from circa 1600BC, and the words ‘cancer’ and ‘carcinoma’ come from Hippocrates and Celcus, both of whom lived before Christ.) ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-cancer-first-discovered/541838/3 "2010-06-03T22:27:15Z")
Hippocrates called it cancer (meaning “crab”) because the tumors he saw often had long branching projections that looked to him like the claws of a crab. Incidentally, John Adams’ daughter had breast cancer, had the lump removed, and lived for many more years before eventually dying of a recurrence. This slightly relevant trivia brought to you by the letter “C”. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-cancer-first-discovered/541838/4 "2010-06-03T22:41:48Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Hippocrates called it cancer (meaning “crab”) because the tumors he saw often had long branching projections that looked to him like the claws of a crab. To be a bit more accurate, being Greek, he called it (or, rather, the tumors) Carcinos (Crab), which he later altered into Carcinoma (Crab-swelling). It was Celcus who later translated the name into Latin as ‘Cancer’. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-cancer-first-discovered/541838/5 "2010-06-04T00:34:25Z")
Fair 'nuff ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-cancer-first-discovered/541838/6 "2010-06-04T12:55:55Z")
Just chiming in with some related questions: [Words for ‘cancer’ in other languages](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=541388) [An early theory on the metastatic nature of cancerous tumors](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=376672) ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-cancer-first-discovered/541838/7 "2010-06-04T18:02:32Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > …Incidentally, John Adams’ daughter had breast cancer, had the lump removed, and lived for many more years before eventually dying of a recurrence. If only this were true. John Adam’s daughter [Abigail “Nabby” Adams Smith](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_%E2%80%9CNabby%E2%80%9D_Adams_Smith), was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1811. She had surgery to remove the tumor a few months later (the gruesome details of which can be found in this [essay](http://www.shsu.edu/~pin_www/T@S/2002/NabbyAdamsEssay.html)), took months to recover from the surgery, but less than a year after recovering from the surgery she exhibited signs of metastasized tumors all through her body. She died painfully in 1813. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-cancer-first-discovered/541838/8 "2010-06-04T18:12:22Z")
Hrm. Must have misremembered the details from that Adams biography I read. ---
**Author:** ![davekhps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@davekhps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davekhps)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-cancer-first-discovered/541838/9 "2010-06-04T19:34:45Z")
> [@robby](#): > > If only this were true. > > John Adam’s daughter [Abigail “Nabby” Adams Smith](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_%E2%80%9CNabby%E2%80%9D_Adams_Smith), was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1811. She had surgery to remove the tumor a few months later (the gruesome details of which can be found in this [essay](http://www.shsu.edu/~pin_www/T@S/2002/NabbyAdamsEssay.html)), took months to recover from the surgery, but less than a year after recovering from the surgery she exhibited signs of metastasized tumors all through her body. She died painfully in 1813. ☹ As the Wikipedia notes, the confusion probably stems from the depiction of the surgery in the HBO miniseries John Adams. A depiction that is simultaneously not that graphic, yet one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever seen.