I remember when I was a medical student and an elderly patient would be admitted to the surgical service through the emergency room with a bowel obstruction, or a lung cancer, or blockage in the coronary arteries so severe that only a coronary bypass could save him. The students and residents would gather around the… Continue reading When Age is a Relative Thing
The great Greek physician and teacher Hippocrates (460 BC-370 BC) described several kinds of cancer, referring to them with the Greek word "carcinos", meaning crab or crayfish. This name comes from the appearance of the cut surface of a solid malignant tumor, with the "veins stretched out on all sides as the animal the crab has its feet, whence it derives its name."