The Origin of the Word 'Cancer"'

Cancer is a word that brings fear to anyone’s mind. It has many meanings. In medicine cancer is referred to an invasive growth arising from body tissue. In astronomy, cancer is a zodiac sign with the symbol of a crab. The word cancer is also used to describe something destructive and fast growing.

 The word cancer was first introduced to medicine by Hippocrates, the father of Medicine. He has used the words carcinos and carcinoma to describe cellular growths. Carcinos, carcinoma, Karkinos were Greek words meaning ‘crab’. He decided to call these growths as crab, because they appeared like one. Most of the cancers that Hippocrates came in to contact were end stage cancers. Fortunately, nowadays end stage cancers are rare due to screening programs and due to high early detection rates.

When examining a lump, a physician looks for several features. They are the site, size, shape, surface, surroundings, consistency and the margins.  Hippocrates has also done the same thing. There, he noted several special features of an invasive tumor. He has analyzed those features and decided to give it the name ‘karkinos’ (crab) because the tumors had many features similar to a crab. The surface of most of the malignant tumors is hard. The shell of crab is also hard. There is another argument saying that Hippocrates named malignant tumors as ‘Karkinos’ by considering the pain it causes. The pain caused by cancer is similar to the pain caused by crab’s claw.   

The word cancer was used by physicians and other philosophers since then. According to npr.org, in about 47 A.D the Greco-Roman philosopher Celsus named his encyclopedia of Medicine Cancer. Later on, another physician called Galen noticed that the tumor tissues spread away from the main mass of the tumor. This resembled the appearance of the legs of a crab. These findings supported the persistence of the term cancer in the field of Medicine. 

The term cancer has always been considered as a mean and dangerous word. Ancient people thought that cancer is a punishment given from the god to those who have done bad things. Until recently people referred to cancer as the C word. In early days, there was no treatment for cancer. Hippocrates used to advise his cancer patients to go home and stay with their loved once until they die. With the development of modern health care knowledge, services and facilities the prognosis of cancer has become less frightening. Therefore, now people use the word cancer more often than early days.