Why do they call cancer (the disease) cancer

Why do they call cancer (the disease) cancer

http://www.chacha.com/question/why-do-they-call-cancer-%28the-disease%29-cancer

Hippocrates called it carcinoma, Greek word for crab. The finger-like projections from cancer look like crabs Cancer means crab.

What is This Disease Called Cancer?

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-This-Disease-Called-Cancer?&id=3307502

Cancer is a well known human disease. Mention is contained in medical records that have survived over the centuries. However at no previous time does it appear to have been as common as is now the case in our modern society when it may be a…

Why is the disease cancer called cancer?

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why+is+cancer+called+cancer

The word cancer means crab, or crab-like. After the discovery of x-rays and using x-rays to take radiographs of the human body, researchers noticed that cancer and the spread of cancer throughout certain parts of the body (especially the lu…

Related Questions Answered on Y!Answers

Why do people call anorexia and alcoholism a disease? Cancer is a disease. Eat more or drink less.?

Q: I just don’t get it. People say it is a disease, and then the people that have it blame it on a psychological addictiveness. I bite my nails because of a psychological addictiveness, does that mean I have a disease? Are these people just looking for sympathy for doing what they do?17 minutes ago – 3 days left to answer.Monalisa- please dont respond to this question unless you have an answer. Re-read the agreement for this site, you are an abusive user by writing something thats not an answer. Now leave me alone and stop whining and crying because ur answers suck.

A: i’d imagine that alcoholism falls into the same category as other dependent addictions, including drugs and gambling…i very much doubt people do it for sympathy, or fun (would you want people knowing that you’d drunk enough to lose your house/job/marriage and to give you permanent liver damage?) when you’d in the grip of something like that, people do need some sort of sympathetic response – especially if they’re trying to get out of itand i don’t think biting your nails quite comes close… sorryand anorexia? it’s a mental disorder that manifests itself in not eating, do some research, it’s not as easy as ‘eating more’

why is the starsign of crab called cancer?

Q: cos its actually like that too in other languages… and i’ve always wondered why they called a disease after a star constellation (or vice versa)… does anyone know? thanks 🙂

A: There are loads of medical books explaining the etymology of “cancer”. “Cancer” or the Greek word “Canker” means “crab” in Latin, a sea creature which has no connection to the disease beyond the imagination. Although no one is certain who coined this term, most sources point on Claudius Galen of Pergamum, a Greek Physician worked in Rome in 2nd Century AD. He thought that the swollen veins surrounding a tumour resembled a crab’s limbs. Anyway, the term comes from the descriptive pathology of a usual malignant tumour, which spreads its claws in all directions, much like a crab, and has a tenacious tendency to hold on to the parent tissue even when surgically removed a part of a structure or an organ, again like the creature. The Hippocratic writers (fifth to fourth century B.C.) used the words carcinos and carcinoma in practically synonymous sense, and both meant crab. They applied these words indiscriminately to intractable ulcerations. The Hippocratic concept of carcinos and carcinoma were changed by Aurelius Cornelius Celsus (first century A.D.) a Roman Physician changing carcinos into Latin cancer (meaning crab) and transliterating the latter into the Latin as carcinoma and have different interpretations. Cancer meant generally a deeply penetrating type of ulceration.Dr. Adrian Reuben described cancer as swelling or sore, about which the veins appear of a black or swart (dark) colour, spread in the manner of Crayfish claws, whereupon it took the name in Latin, like as in Greek Carcinoma.

I had Hodgkins Lymphoma which used to be called Hodgkins Disease. Why did they change this?

Q: I just wonder if what i really had was cancer or if it was some sort of other thing — like a disease. Hodgkins is now 93% curable. It’s like no other cancer. That’s why I’m wondering if it somehow got lumped in with cancer. Certainly the treatment is the same but the outcomes seem so different. Plus I had a reading by a “seer” and he thought I never really had cancer.

A: Sorry to prove your “seer” wrong, but you did have cancer. It is Lymphoma with the presence of Reed-Sternburg cells (which differentiates hodge from non-hodge.)It’s still called Hodgkin’s Disease, but like the answerer said before me, it’s a little more logical to call it Lymphoma since that’s what it is. Another reason it could be referred to as Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is for our sanity. You say Hodgkin’s Disease, people think, “Oh, it’s not cancer, it’s just a disease. It’s curable.” Trust me, I’ve heard it before. Even though it has a high cure rate, doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. And 93% is high, but sounds a little high compared to the stats I’ve seen.Stages I & II- 85-90%Stage III & IIII- 80-85%High, but not cured. It’s not cured until there’s a 100% cure rate.