# why is cancer called cancer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cancer-called-cancer/230573>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 23, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cancer-called-cancer/230573 "2004-02-23T00:12:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cancer-called-cancer/230573/1 "2004-02-23T00:12:17Z")

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What do cancer cells have to do with Cancer the symbol or astrological sign?

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**Author:** ![King\_Friday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@King\_Friday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Friday)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cancer-called-cancer/230573/2 "2004-02-23T00:16:08Z")

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Why is it called a building when it’s already built?

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**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cancer-called-cancer/230573/3 "2004-02-23T00:17:45Z")

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One of the definitions at [www.dictionary.com](http://www.dictionary.com) offers this:

> [@](#):
>
> 1. (Med.) Formerly, any malignant growth, esp. one attended with great pain and ulceration, with cachexia and progressive emaciation. It was so called, perhaps, from the great veins which surround it, compared by the ancients to the claws of a crab. The term is now restricted to such a growth made up of aggregations of epithelial cells, either without support or embedded in the meshes of a trabecular framework.
> 
> Source: Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-cancer-called-cancer/230573/4 "2004-02-23T04:11:03Z")

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A slightly different explanation is that the ancients compared the hardness of a cancerous tumor in the body with the shell of a crab.