A Disease Without History? Evidence for the Antiquity of Head and Neck Cancers

Pestle, William J.; Colvard, Michael D.

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-5827-8_2

Cited by 4 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…They advised patients to avoid foods such as raw fish or other animals considered to be unclean [11,14] References to the Egyptian medical and surgical practices from 3000 to 2500 BC have been deciphered in extensive papyri and hieroglyphics found on ancient ruins, particularly in two of the most important Egyptian papyri which are the "Ebers Papyrus" and the "Edwin Smith Papyrus". Both Papyri are dated between 1600 and 1550 BC but are believed to contain descriptions originating from 2500 and 3000 BC [15][16][17][18][19]. They are named after the egyptologists who found them in the 1800s.…”

Section: Ancient Egyptian Civilizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hippocrates and his disciples proposed a rational scientific theory of cancer with the "humoral theory" (θεωρία των χυµών) on its origins, associating it with natural causes and dissociating it from the idea of a religious punishment; particularly, they believed cancer was the result of unfavourable humoral fluxes (αίµα=blood, ξανθή χoλή=yellow bile, µέλαινα χoλή =black bile and ϕλέγµα= phlegm or mucus) and then caused by an extravascular effusion of these fluids into soft tissues, but also they believed that cancer was strongly linked with excess or lack of food and with old age [45,46]. The origin of the term "cancer" is credited to Hippocrates and to the Hippocratic physicians, who used the Greek terms kαρκίνoς or kαρκίνωµα (karkinos/ karkinoma=cancer) in order to describe tumours, in reference to the shape and texture of a cancerous lesion in the breast of one of his patients: in fact, the finger-like spreading projections departing from a cancer called to mind the shape of a moving crab, infiltrating tissues with its claws [19].…”

Section: Ancient Greece and The Roman Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Oral Cancer: A Historical Review

Inchingolo

Santacroce

Ballini

et al. 2020

IJERPH

107

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Aim: This historical medical literature review aims at understanding the evolution of the medical existence of oral cancer over times, particularly better comprehending if the apparent lower prevalence of this type of cancer in antiquity is a real value due to the absence of modern environmental and lifestyle factors or it is linked to a misinterpretation of ancient foreign terms found in ancient medical texts regarding oral neoplasms. Methods: The databases MedLne, PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier’s EMBASE.com, Cochrane Review, National Library of Greece (Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Athens) and the Library of the School of Health Sciences of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece) were extensively searched for relevant studies published during the past century on the history of oral cancer and its treatment from antiquity to modern times, in addition to the WHO website to analyse the latest epidemiological data. In addition, we included historical books on the topic of interest and original sources. Results: Historical references reveal that the cradle of the oral oncology was in ancient Egypt, the Asian continent and Greece and cancer management was confined to an approximate surgical practice, in order to remove abnormal masses and avoid bleeding with cauterization. In the Medieval Age, little progress occurred in medicine in general, oral cancers management included. It is only from the Renaissance to modern times that knowledge about its pathophysiological mechanisms and histopathology and its surgical and pharmacological treatment approaches became increasingly deep all over the world, evolving to the actual integrated treatment. Despite the abundant literature exploring oncology in past civilizations, the real prevalence of oral cancer in antiquity is much less known; but a literature analysis cannot exclude a consistent prevalence of this cancer in past populations, probably with a likely lower incidence than today, because many descriptions of its aggressiveness were found in ancient medical texts, but it is still difficult to be sure that each single description of oral masses could be associated to cancer, particularly for what concerns the period before the Middle Ages. Conclusions: Modern oncologists and oral surgeons must learn a lot from their historic counterparts in order to avoid past unsuccessful efforts to treatment oral malignancies. Several descriptions of oral cancers in the antiquity that we found let us think that this disease might be linked to mechanisms not strictly dependent on environmental risk factors, and this might guide future research on oral cavity treatments towards strategical cellular and molecular techniques.

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Section: Ancient Egyptian Civilizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ancient Greece and The Roman Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oral Cancer: A Historical Review

Inchingolo

Santacroce

Ballini

et al. 2020

IJERPH

107

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show abstract

“…Oral cancer, a malignant neoplasm of the oral cavity and oropharynx, is a disease which has afflicted humans for over three millennia [1][2][3][4][5]. Moreover, it is the most common cancer in the head-and-neck region, and it is the 16th most common and 15th deadliest cancer type affecting humans [6][7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global health trends of human papillomavirus‐associated oral cancer: A review

Kanmodi,

Amzat,

Nwafor

et al. 2023

Public Health Challenges

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Oral cancer is a malignant neoplastic disease, it constitutes the most common cancer in the head‐and‐neck region, and it is the 16th most common and 15th deadliest cancer type affecting humans. Despite the global efforts channelled towards global cancer control, the burden of oral cancer is still increasing. Every year, several thousands of people across 195 countries/territories die of oral cancer, and only about 40%–50% of the victims of oral cancer barely survive for 5 years after diagnosis. Within the past few decades, there has been a paradigm shift in the epidemiological trend of oral cancer risk factors. Oral sex – a major route of transmission of human papillomavirus (HPV) – was found to be increasing at an alarming rate, whereas tobacco and alcohol use had been on the decline. This narrative review critically discussed the contemporary challenges facing the global eradication of HPV‐associated oral cancer, with reasonable recommendations. The challenges discussed in this review are major, ranging from clinical to public health policy issues, which include the lack of validated and inexpensive oral HPV screening and diagnostic tools, high global public illiteracy on oral HPV infection, diverse sociocultural factors, weak global research capacity on oral HPV infection and HPV‐associated oral cancer and the absence of policies across different countries on national preventive programmes on HPV‐associated oral cancer. This review also identified the need for more attention towards the prevention and control oral HPV infection and HPV‐associated oral cancers globally.

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“…Firstly, the authors omitted the most extensive and complete review about this topic, published in 2013. 2 Secondly, the authors did not discuss ancient Indian and Chinese writings (they also belong to the ancient world). Thirdly, and mainly, some of the references dealing with the Greco-Roman world, essentially the ones considered as primary sources, even if they correspond to author guidelines of the journal, are not clear and are difficult to exploit.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, I am a little confused with this report. Firstly, the authors omitted the most extensive and complete review about this topic, published in 2013 2 . Secondly, the authors did not discuss ancient Indian and Chinese writings (they also belong to the ancient world).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Surgical treatment of head and neck cancers in the ancient world

Mudry

2016

J. Laryngol. Otol.

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A Disease Without History? Evidence for the Antiquity of Head and Neck Cancers

Cited by 4 publications

References 65 publications

Oral Cancer: A Historical Review

Oral Cancer: A Historical Review

Global health trends of human papillomavirus‐associated oral cancer: A review

Surgical treatment of head and neck cancers in the ancient world

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