Ribbo

Cancer Timeline

By AKovecs
  • Jan 1, 1500

    1500 b.c. First Case of Cancer

    1500 b.c. First Case of Cancer
    Cancer HistoryThe world's earliest records of cancer are from Egypt. They wrote about 8 cases of breast tumors. They treated it with cauterization, where they destroyed the tumors with hot tools callled "fire drills".

  • First Autopsy

    First Autopsy
    Autopsy Giovanni Morgagni of Padua was the first to perform autopsies to relate the patient’s illness to pathologic findings after death. This laid the foundation for scientific oncology, the study of cancer.

  • First Surgery Removal

    First Surgery Removal
    History In 1846, John Collins Warren performed the first major cancer operation under general anaesthesia - the removal of a patient's cancerous salivary glands.

  • New Detection Option

    New Detection Option
    History The first description of malignant cells in sputum was reported by W.H. Washe. They used sputum tests to screen for lung cancer.

  • Radiation Discovered

    Radiation Discovered
    Discovery A German physics professor, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, presented a remarkable new phenomenon, and called it the “X-ray”, with “x” being the unknown quantity. Within months, systems were being devised to use x-rays for diagnosis, and within 3 years radiation was used to treat cancer.

  • First Successful Pneumonectomy

    First Successful Pneumonectomy
    CancerQuestEvarts Ambrose Graham successfully removed an entire lung that had carcinoma.

  • Chemotherapy Discovered

    Chemotherapy Discovered
    First Use During World War II it was discovered that mustard gas decreased human blood cells. Alfred Gilman, a student at Yale, studied this in 1943. He used nitrogen mustard as the first chemotherapy chemical on a lymphoma patient. The nitrogen mustard worked to shrink the tumor.

  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

    Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
    Milestones Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell discover nuclear magnetic resonance, which is used today to detect brain tumors and other cancers.

  • Smoking Linked to Cancer

    Smoking Linked to Cancer
    Milestones In the early 20th century smoking cigarettes greatly increased, and so did lung cancer rates. British researches Richard Doll and Tony Hill conducted a study of 600 people who smoked and 600 people who didn't smoke, and tracked the number of cases of lung cancer. People who smoked had a much higher rate.

  • First Organ Transplant

    First Organ Transplant
    Organ Donation On December 23, the first ever organ was transplanted successfully. Ronald Herrick gave his identical twin, Richard, a kidney. Now people could remove organs with cancer and receive transplants.

  • First Prevention Medicine

    First Prevention Medicine
    HeptavaxThe first human cancer prevention vaccine is introduced—the hepatitis B virus vaccine to prevent liver cancer. It was called heptavax.

  • First Stem Cell Transplant

    First Stem Cell Transplant
    Stem Cells The first stem cell transplant was used to treat leukemia in a person who was beyond remission. It was discovered to be more effective than a bone marrow transplant.