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150 Years of Advances Against Cancer - 1860s-1890s
1860s
| 1863 | Rudolph Virchow identifies white blood cells (leucocytes) in cancerous tissue, making the first connection between inflammation and cancer. He hypothesizes that cancer develops at sites of chronic inflammation. Previously, he had proposed that all cells, including cancer cells, arise from the division (multiplication) of pre-existing cells. He also coined the term “leukemia” and was the first person to describe the excess number of white blood cells in the blood of patients with this disease. |
1870s
| 1873 | Theodore Billroth performs the first successful surgery to treat cancer of the larynx (voice box). |
| 1877 | Vincenz Czerny performs the first successful surgery for cancer of the esophagus (carcinoma of the cervical, or upper, esophagus). His patient lives 1 year before dying from a recurrence of the tumor. |
| 1878 | Wilhelm Freund successfully removes a woman’s uterus (abdominal hysterectomy) to treat uterine cancer. |
1880s
| 1881 | Theodore Billroth performs the first successful surgery to treat gastric (stomach) cancer. His patient lives 4 more months before dying of liver metastases. |
| 1882 | William Halsted performs the first radical mastectomy to treat breast cancer. In this surgical procedure, the entire breast, the lymph nodes under the arm (axillary lymph nodes), and the chest muscles behind the breast (pectoralis major and pectoralis minor muscles) are removed. Radical mastectomy will remain the standard operation for breast cancer until latter half of the 20th century, when the use of modified radical mastectomy becomes widely accepted. |
1890s
| 1895 | Wilhelm Roentgen discovers X-rays. The first X-ray picture is an image of one of his wife’s hands. |
| 1898 | Marie and Pierre Curie discover the radioactive elements radium and polonium. Within a few years, the use of radium in cancer treatment will begin. |
