6/2/2023 0 Comments The emperor of diseasesArchaeological evidence and anecdotal accounts suggest that cancer was ancient even in that victim’s lifetime and is possibly “one of the oldest diseases ever seen in a human specimen,” Mukherjee writes.ĭespite cancer’s long history-Hippocrates christened the deadly malady karkinos (Greek for crab) in approximately 400 BC-the medical profession was exceedingly slow to accumulate useful knowledge about the disease. According to Mukherjee, one of the earliest confirmed cases of cancer was first diagnosed in 1990 by a paleopathologist, who discovered a 1,000-year-old osteosarcoma in the upper arm of a Peruvian mummy in 1900. And although the phrase “War on Cancer” might be forever tied to 1971, Mukherjee demonstrates that mankind’s conflict with the disease began much earlier. The Emperor of All Maladies bills itself as a “biography of cancer,” and while author Siddhartha Mukherjee cannot tell us precisely when cancer appeared in this world, he does a remarkable job of chronicling the affliction’s journey from when the world first opened its eyes to cancer.
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