Cancer's History
Early Times
Blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm.
Hippocrates, legendary doctor of ancient Greece, explained disease to his patients in terms of these four substances he believed their bodies created. When the humors were in balance, the body was healthy.
If too much or too little of any of the four was produced, sickness arose. Cancer, according to Hippocrates, was caused by an excess of black bile produced by the stomach and spleen.
The mysterious cancer cell has troubled researchers and haunted patients for thousands of years, says the National Cancer Institute. And Hippocrates was only one of many ancient, medieval and modern-day researchers to offer theories about the group of diseases known as cancer.
In the early twentieth century, cancer touched people in all walks of life. Doctors seemed to have little ammunition against this "dread disease." The topic rarely entered polite conversation. According to the National Cancer Institute, obituaries routinely omitted cancer as a cause of death.
Breaking The Silence
In 1913, this code of silence began to weaken. The first article in a popular magazine discussing the signs and symptoms of cancer appeared in Ladies Home Journal. It was called "What Can We Do About Cancer?" That same year marked the founding of the American Society for the Control of Cancer, which aimed to educate the public about cancer, according to the NCI.
While the majority of cancer research at the time was conducted in the private sector, the federal government funded limited studies as early as 1922.
In 1927, the Public Health Service formally established its Office of Cancer Investigations at Harvard University.
Over the next 10 years, members of Congress in both the House and the Senate proposed a series of bills focusing on the need for federal involvement in the prevention and control of cancer. Throughout the 1930s, grassroots organizations like the Women's Field Army Against Cancer kept attention focused on the need for federal support of cancer research, according to the NCI.
A compromise bill, the National Cancer Institute Act, was finally signed into law in 1937.
The Last 25 Years
The past several decades have seen remarkable advances against cancer. Since the passage of the National Cancer Act in 1971, which called for more research and greater accountability, the cancer mortality rates have declined. In 1996, the NCI reported a drop of 2.6 percent between 1991 to 1995. This drop includes major cancers, such as lung, prostate, and testicular cancers in men, breast cancer in women, and colorectal cancer.
What does the future hold? Certainly more research into gene therapy and combination cures. Want to know more about the future? Check out the National Cancer Institute Web site.
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