History of Cancer

Evidence of cancer cells in dinosaur fossils, found in 2003.

The oldest known hominid malignant tumor was found in Homo erectus, or Australopithecus, by Louis Leakey in 1932.

Egypt
Evidence of cancerous cells found in mummies.

Cancer found in remains of Bronze Age human female skull.

Babylonian code of Hammurabi set a standard fee for surgical removal of tumors (ten shekels) and penalties for failure.

Egypt
The Egyptians blamed cancer on the gods. Ancient Egyptian scrolls describe eight cases of breast tumors treated by cauterization.
Stomach cancer treated with boiled barley mixed with dates; cancer of the uterus by a concoction of fresh dates mixed with pig’s brain introduced into the vagina.

China
Physicians specializing in treating swellings and ulcerations were referred to in The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty.

India
Indian epic tale, the Ramayana, described treatment with arsenic paste to thwart tumor growth.

Peru
Pre-Colombian Inca mummies found to contain lesions suggestive of malignant melanoma.

Greece
Greek physician Hippocrates (460–370 BCE), the “Father of Medicine,” believed illness was caused by an imbalance of four bodily humors: yellow bile, black bile, blood, and phlegm. He was the first to recognize differences between benign and malignant tumors.

China
The first clinical picture of breast cancer, including progression, metastatis, and death, and prognosis approximately ten years after diagnosis, was described in The Nei Ching, or The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. It gave the first description of tumors and five forms of therapy: spiritual, pharmacological, diet, acupuncture, and treatment of respiratory diseases.

Italy
The Romans found some tumors could be removed by surgery and cauterized, but thought medicine did not work. They noted some tumors grew again.

Italy
Greek doctor Claudius Galen (129–216 AD) removed some tumors surgically, but he generally believed that cancer was best left untreated. Galen believed melancholia the chief factor in causing breast cancer, and recommended special diets, exorcism, and topical applications.

Europe
Surgery and cautery were used on smaller tumors. Caustic pastes, usually containing arsenic, were used on more extensive cancers, as well as phlebotomy (blood-letting), diet, herbal medicines, powder of crab, and symbolic charms.

Italy
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) dissected cadavers for artistic and scientific purposes, adding to the knowledge of the human body.

Christopher Columbus returned to Europe from the Americas with the first tobacco leaves and seeds ever seen on the continent. A crew member, Rodrigo de Jerez, was seen smoking and imprisoned by the Inquisition, which believed he was possessed by the devil.

Europe
Autopsies were conducted more often and understanding of internal cancers grew.

Netherlands
Zacharias Janssen invented the first compound microscope.

Netherlands
Dutch surgeon Adrian Helvetius performed both lumpectomy and mastectomy, claiming this cured breast cancer.

Germany
Cancer surgery techniques improved, but lack of anesthesia and antiseptic conditions made surgery a risky choice. German surgeon Wilhelm Fabricius Hildanus (1560–1634) removed enlarged lymph nodes in breast cancer operations, while Johann Scultetus (1595–1645) performed total mastectomies.

France
Physician Claude Gendron (1663–1750) concluded that cancer arises locally as a hard, growing mass, untreatable with drugs, and that it must be removed with all its “filaments.”

Germany
Professor Hermann Boerhaave (1668–1738) believed inflammation could result in cancer.

Netherlands
Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) refined the single lens microscope and was the first to see blood cells and bacteria, aiding the better understanding of cells, blood, and lymphatic system— major steps in improving the understanding of cancer.

France
Physician Le Dran (1685–1770) first recognized that breast cancer could spread to the regional auxiliary lymph nodes, carrying a poorer prognosis.

Italy
Dr. Bernardino Ramazzini (1633–1714), a founder of occupational/industrial medicine, reported the virtual absence of cervical cancer and relatively high incidence of breast cancer in nuns. This observation was an important step toward identifying hormonal factors such as pregnancy and infections related to sexual contact in cancer risk, and was the first indication that lifestyle might affect the development of cancer.

France
Physicians and scientists performed systematic experiments on cancer, leading to oncology as a medical specialty. Two French scientists— physician Jean Astruc and chemist Bernard Peyrilhe— were key to these new investigations.

Padua, Italy
Giovanni Morgagni performed the first autopsies to relate the patient’s illness to the science of disease, laying the foundation for modern pathology.

UK
Dr. John Hill published “Cautions Against the Immoderate Use of Snuff,” the first report linking tobacco and cancer.

UK
Dr. Percival Pott of Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital in London described cancer in chimney sweeps caused by soot collecting under their scrotum, the first indication that exposure to chemicals in the environment could cause cancer. This research led to many additional studies that identified other occupational carcinogens and thence to public health measures to reduce cancer risk.

France
First cancer hospital founded in Reims. It was forced to move from the city because people believed cancer was contagious.

Scotland
Scottish surgeon John Hunter (1728–93) stated that tumors originated in the lymph system and then seeded around the body. He suggested that some cancers might be cured by surgery, especially those that had not invaded nearby tissue.

Scotland
In the early 1800s, Scottish physician John Waldrop proposed that “glioma of the retina,” which typically appeared within the eyes of newborns and young children and was usually lethal, might be cured via early removal of affected organs.

France
Gynecologist Joseph Recamier described the invasion of the bloodstream by cancer cells, coining the term metastatis, which came to mean the distant spread of cancer from its primary site to other places in the body.

Germany
Pathologist Johannes Müller demonstrated that cancer is made up of cells and not lymph. His student, Rudolph Virchow (1821–1902), later proposed that chronic inflammation— the site of a wound that never heals— was the cause of cancer.

Italy
Domenico Antonio Rigoni-Stern undertook first major statistical analysis of cancer incidence and mortality using 1760–1839 data from Verona. This showed that more women than men died from tumors, and that the commonest female cancers were breast and uterine (each accounting for a third of total deaths). He found cancer death rates for both sexes were rising and concluded that incidence of cancer increases with age, that cancer is found less in the country than in the city, and that unmarried people are more likely to contract the disease.

Scotland
John Hughes Bennett, the Edinburgh physician, was the first to describe leukemia as an excessive proliferation of blood cells.

UK
Decennial reports linked cancer death to occupation and social class.

Earlier invention of general anesthesia (chloroform, ether, nitrous oxide) became more widespread, making cancer surgery more acceptable.

USA
First practical cigarette-making machine patented by James Bonsack. It could produce 120,000 cigarettes a day, each machine doing the work of 48 people. Production costs plummeted, and— with the invention of the safety match a few decades later— cigarette smoking began its explosive growth.

Brazil
Hereditary basis for cancer first suggested after Professor Hilario de Gouvea of the Medical School in Rio de Janeiro reported a family with increased susceptibility to retinoblastoma.

USA
Professor William Stewart Halsted at Johns Hopkins University developed the radical mastectomy for breast cancer, removing breast, underlying muscles, and lymph nodes under the arm.

Germany
Physicist Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen (1845–1923) discovered X-rays, used in the diagnosis of cancer. Within a few years, this led to the use of radiation for cancer treatment.

USA
Walter B. Cannon (1871–1945) was still a college student when he fed bismuth and barium mixtures to geese, outlining their gullets on an X-ray plate (the forerunner of the Barium meal examination).

Invention and use of the modern microscope, which later helped identify cancer cells.

Germany
Johannes Müller’s student Rudolph Virchow (1821–1902), “the founder of cellular pathology”, determined that all cells, including cancer cells, are derived from other cells. He was the first to coin the term “leukemia” and believed that chronic inflammation was the cause of cancer.

Germany
Surgeon Karl Thiersch showed cancers metastasize through the spread of malignant cells.

UK
Surgeon Stephen Paget (1855–1926) first deduced that cancer cells spread to all organs of the body by the bloodstream, but only grow in the organ (“soil”) they find compatible. This laid the groundwork for the true understanding of metastasis.

Scotland
Dr. Thomas Beatson discovered that the breasts of rabbits stopped producing milk after he removed the ovaries. This control of one organ over another led Beatson to test what would happen if the ovaries were removed in patients suffering from advanced breast cancer, and the found that oophorectomy often resulted in improvement. He thus discovered the stimulating effect of estrogen on breast tumors long before the hormone was discovered. This work provided a foundation for the modern use of hormones and analogs (e.g. tamoxifen, taxol) for treatment and prevention of breast cancer.

Lung cancer was extremely rare; now it is one of the most common cancers.

Hundreds of materials, both man-made and natural, were recognized as causes of cancer (carcinogens).

X-ray exposure led to skin cancer on the hand of a lab technician. Within a decade, many more physicians and scientists, unaware of the dangers of radiation, developed a variety of cancers.

UK
Physicians at the Royal Ophthalmology Hospital reported the first case of “hereditary” retinal glioma, which presented in the child of a parent cured of the disease.

USA
Epidemiological study found that meat-eating Germans, Irish, and Scandinavians living in Chicago had higher rates of cancer than did Italians and Chinese, who ate considerably less meat.

Austria
First national cancer society founded: Austrian Cancer Society.

France
Marie Curie was awarded a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, in recognition of her work in radioactivity.

Radiotherapy— the use of radiation to kill cancer cells or stop them dividing— was developed as a treatment.

USA
Peyton Rous (1879–1970) proved that viruses caused cancer in chickens, for which he was eventually awarded the Nobel Prize in 1966.

USA
The American Cancer Society was founded as the American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC) by 15 physicians and business leaders in New York City. In 1945, the ASCC was renamed the American Cancer Society. It remains the world’s largest voluntary organization.

Japan
Cancer was induced in laboratory animals for the first time by a chemical, coal tar, applied to rabbits’ skin at Tokyo University. Soon many other substances were observed to be carcinogens, including benzene, hydrocarbons, aniline, asbestos, and tobacco.

England
Physician and epidemiologist Janet Lane-Claypon (1877–1967) published results from a study that demonstrated some of the major contemporary risk factors for breast cancer among women, including not breastfeeding, being childless, and older age at first pregnancy.

Greece
George Papanicolaou (1883–1962) identified malignant cells among the normal cast off vaginal cells of women with cancer of the cervix, which led to the Pap smear test.

Germany
Researchers in Cologne drew the first statistical connection between smoking and cancer.

Puerto Rico
Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, a pathologist, allegedly injected his Puerto Rican subjects with cancer cells— 13 people died.

The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) founded.

Spain
First World Cancer Congress held in Madrid.

Classification of breast cancer introduced, enabling the planning of more rational treatment tailored to the individual.

UK
Drs. W. Burton Wood and S. R. Gloyne reported the first two cases of lung cancer linked to asbestos.

USA
National Cancer Institute inaugurated.

USA
Drs. Alton Ochsner and Michael DeBakey first reported the association of smoking and lung cancer.

During the Second World War, the US Army discovered that nitrogen mustard was effective in treating cancer of the lymph nodes (lymphoma). This was the birth of chemotherapy— the use of drugs to treat cancer.

Denmark, UK
First national cancer registries established.

Canada
Dr. Norman Delarue compared 50 patients with lung cancer with 50 patients hospitalized with other diseases. He discovered that over 90% of the first group— but only half of the second— were smokers, and confidently predicted that by 1950 no one would be smoking.

USA
Sidney Farber (1903–73), one of the founders of the specialty of pediatric pathology, used a derivative of folic acid, methotrexate, to inhibit acute leukemia in children.

USA
Dr. Charles B. Huggins’ (1901–97) research on prostate cancer changed the way scientists regard the behavior of all cancer cells, and for the first time brought hope to the prospect of treating advanced cancers. He showed that cancer cells were not autonomous and self-perpetuating but were dependent on chemical signals such as hormones to grow and survive, and that depriving cancer cells of these signals could restore the health of patients with widespread metastases. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1966 (shared with Peyton Rous).

USA
Gertrude Elion (1918–99) created a purine chemical, which she developed into 6-mercaptopurine, or 6-MP. It was rapidly approved for use in childhood leukemia. She received the Nobel Prize in 1988.

USA
The link between smoking and lung cancer was confirmed. A landmark article from The Journal of the American Medical Association appeared on May 27th, 1950: “Tobacco smoking as a possible etiologic factor in bronchogenic carcinoma” by E.L. Wynder and Evarts Graham. The same issue featured a full-page ad for Chesterfields with the actress Gene Tierney and golfer Ben Hogan; the journal accepted tobacco ads until 1953.

UK
Dr. Richard Doll and Prof. Austin Bradford Hill conducted the first large-scale study of the link between smoking and lung cancer.

UK
James Watson and Francis Crick described the double helical structure of DNA, marking the beginning of the modern era of genetics.

USA
First tobacco litigation against the cigarette companies, brought by a widow on behalf of her smoker husband, who died from cancer. The cigarette companies won.

USA
Dr. Min Chiu Li ( –1980) first demonstrated clinically that chemotherapy could result in the cure of a widely metastatic malignant disease.

Japan
Group cancer screening for stomach cancer began with a mobile clinic in Tohoku region.

USA
Dr. Min Chiu Li published another important and original finding: the use of multiple-agent combination chemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic cancers of the testis. Twenty years later, it was demonstrated that combination chemotherapy, combined with techniques for local control, had virtually eliminated deaths from testicular malignancy.

Japan
Cancer research programs were established by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture.

USA
Physician Irving J. Selikoff (1915-1992) published the results from a study linking asbestos exposure to the development of mesothelioma.

USA
First US Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health.

WHO established International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), based in Lyon, France.

International Association of Cancer Registries (IACR) founded.

Trials in several countries demonstrated the effectiveness of mammography screening for breast cancer.

USA, Italy
Bernard Fisher in the USA and Umberto Veronesi in Italy both launched long-term studies as to whether lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy was an option to radical mastectomy in early breast cancer. These studies concluded that total mastectomy offered no advantage over either lumpectomy or lumpectomy plus radiation therapy.

USA
The National Cancer Act in President Nixon’s “War on Cancer” mandated financial support for cancer research, established a network of population-based cancer registries, outlined intervention strategies, and, in 1973, established the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program.

USA
Bone marrow transplantation first performed successfully on a dog in Seattle by Dr. E. Donnall Thomas (1920– ). This led to human bone marrow transplantation, resulting in cures for leukemias and lymphomas. In 1990, Dr. Thomas won a Nobel Prize for his work.

Childhood leukemia became one of the first cancers that could be cured by a combination of drugs.

USA
Discovery of the first cancer gene (the oncogene, which in certain circumstances can transform a cell into a tumor cell).

WHO, UICC, and others promoted national cancer planning for nations to prioritize and focus their cancer activities.

Japan
Professor Takeshi Hirayama (1923–95) published the first report linking passive smoking and lung cancer in the non-smoking wives of men who smoked.

Italy
Dr. G. Bonnadona in Milan performed the first study of adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer using cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil, resulting in reduction of cancer relapse. Adjuvant chemotherapy is now standard treatment for lung, breast, colon, stomach, and ovary cancers.

USA
Kaposi’s sarcoma and T-cell lymphoma linked to AIDS.

USA
Nobel Laureate Baruch S. Blumberg was instrumental in developing a reliable and safe vaccine against hepatitis B (which causes primary liver cancer).

Australia
Barry Marshall and J. Robin Warren identified bacterium H. pylori, noting it caused duodenal and gastric ulcers and increased the risk of gastric cancer.

USA
Vincent DeVita developed a four-drug combination to significantly raise the cure rate of Hodgkin’s disease to 80%.

Human Genome Project was initiated to pinpoint the location and function of an estimated 50,000–100,000 genes that make up the inherited set of “instructions” for functions and behavior of human beings.

WHO Program on Cancer Control established.

Global First WHO World No Tobacco Day, subsequently an annual event.

European Network of Cancer Registries (ENCR) established.

USA
National Institutes of Health researchers performed the first approved gene therapy, inserting foreign genes to track tumor-killing cells in cancer patients. This project proved the safety of gene therapy.

Evidence linking specific environmental carcinogens to telltale DNA damage emerged, e.g. sub radiation was found to produce change in tumor suppressor genes in skin cells, aflatoxin (a fungus poison) or hepatitis B virus to cause a mutation in the liver, and chemicals in cigarette smoke to switch on a gene that makes lung cells vulnerable to the chemicals’ cancer-causing properties.

USA, Canada, UK, France, Japan
Scientists collaborated and discovered BRCA1, the first breast and ovarian cancer predisposing gene.

USA
National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) established.

Gene therapy, immune system modulation, and genetically engineered antibodies used to treat cancer.

Netherlands, USA
Jan Walboomers of the Free University of Amsterdam and Michele Manos of Johns Hopkins provided evidence that the human papillomavirus is present in 99.7% of all cases of cervical cancer.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a five-year, $50 million grant to the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention (ACCP), a group of five international organizations with a shared goal of working to prevent cervical cancer in developing countries.

53rd World Health Assembly presided over by Dr. Libertina Amathila (Namibia) endorsed “Global strategy for non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control,” which outlined major objectives for monitoring, preventing, and managing NCDs, with special emphasis on major NCDs with common risk factors and determinants— cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory disease.

The entire human genome is mapped.

Charter of Paris Against Cancer is signed.

Luxembourg
International Childhood Cancer Day was launched, its aim to raise awareness of the 250,000 children worldwide who get cancer every year. Some 80% of these children have little or no access to treatment. The first annual event in 2002 was supported in 30 countries around the world and raised over US$100,000 for parent organizations to help children in their own countries.

Geneva, Switzerland
WHO cancer prevention and control resolution approved by World Health Assembly.

WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into force, using international law to further public health and prevent cancer.

USA
The US Federal Drug Administration approved the first HPV vaccine to prevent infections that cause cervical cancer.

The FDA approved immunotherapy (Ipilimumab, checkpoint blockade) to treat advanced metastatic melanoma.

Lung cancer deaths reduced by low-dose computed tomography (CT) scanning of people at high risk.

UN High Level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases in New York, US.

WHO launched the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs (2013-2020), including strategies to reduce cancer incidence and mortality by promoting prevention and early detection.

The International Cancer Control Partnership (ICCP) was co-convened by the NCI and WHO to support governments in developing and implementing evidence-based national cancer control plans​.

WHO launched initiatives to introduce and expand HPV vaccination in low- and middle-income countries to reduce cervical cancer incidence.

The US Congress passes the 21st Century Cures Act, which provides funding for the Cancer Moonshot, a broad program to accelerate cancer research by investing in specific research initiatives that have the potential to transform cancer care, detection, and prevention.

USA
CAR T-cell therapies are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat some kinds of lymphomas and leukemias, as well as multiple myeloma.

USA
The US FDA has extended approval of pembrolizumab for treating metastatic and inoperable solid tumors with certain genetic changes that have progressed following prior treatment and lack alternative options. This tissue-agnostic approval makes pembrolizumab the first cancer treatment based solely on a tumor’s genetic feature rather than cancer type.

WHO issued a global call to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem, which led to the development of the Global Strategy in 2020. WHO signature initiatives on childhood cancer - to provide universal access to cancer diagnosis, treatment, and care for children by 2030 - and breast cancer - to strengthen health systems to save 2.5 million lives over two decades have been subsequently launched.

USA
The US FDA approves larotrectinib, the first drug targeting tumors with NTRK gene fusions for pediatric or adult patients with metastatic or inoperable solid tumors that have progressed after prior treatment. Larotrectinib is the second drug approved for cancer treatment based on specific molecular features, regardless of tumor location.

The American Cancer Society updated its colorectal cancer screening guidelines to lower the recommended starting age for average-risk adults from 50 to 45 years in response to the increase of young-onset colorectal cancer.

The Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes study, which used data collected by the International Cancer Genome Consortium and TCGA, uncovers the complex role that changes throughout the genome play in cancer development, growth, and spread.

The FDA approved the immunotherapy drug atezolizumab (Tecentriq) as an additional, or adjuvant, treatment after surgery and chemotherapy for patients with Stage II-IIIA non-small cell lung cancer and whose tumor expressed PD-1.

The NCI and WHO renewed their collaboration to enhance global cancer control efforts, focusing on governance, accountability, and cancer plan implementation research​.

Trials began for personalized cancer vaccines using mRNA technology to reduce recurrence risk by training the immune system to target specific cancer cells, with expectations to complete by 2027.

U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory sharing how alcohol increases cancer risk, calling for a new health warning label on alcoholic beverages.