title: An early history of human breast cancer: West meets East.
abstract: Cancer has been increasingly recognized as a global issue. This is especially true in countries like China, where cancer incidence has increased likely because of changes in environment and lifestyle. However, cancer is not a modern disease; early cases have been recorded in ancient medical books in the West and in China. Here, we provide a brief history of cancer, focusing on cancer of the breast, and review the etymology of ai, the Chinese character for cancer. Notable findings from both Western and Chinese traditional medicine are presented to give an overview of the most important, early contributors to our evolving understanding of human breast cancer. We also discuss the earliest historical documents to record patients with breast cancer.
authors: Institut des Sciences de la Vie, UCLouvain, Place Croix du Sud 2/8, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. shouheyan@gmail.com.
authors: Shou-He
authors: SH
authors: Yan
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000266:history*; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D019071:Persia