Cancer today, and 200 years ago, what has changed in medicine and in disease?

British doctors confirmed the diagnosis made more than 200 years ago by one of the most knowledgeable and influential surgeons.
Surgeon John Hunter was diagnosed with a tumor in one of his patients in 1786, which he described as "hard as bone."
Doctors working at the Royal Marsden Oncology Hospital analyzed samples taken by Hunter and his medical notes, which are kept in a museum named after the famous surgeon in London.
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In addition to confirming Hunter's diagnosis, the medical team specializing in cancer believes that the samples taken by Hunter may give an idea of ​​the process of changing the disease of cancer through the ages.
Dr Christina Maceo told the BBC: "This study started out as a fun exploration, but we were amazed at Hunter's insight and wit.
It is reported that Hunter appointed a special surgeon to King George III in 1776, and is considered one of the surgeons credited with transforming surgery from something like a butcher's to a real science.
It is said that he deliberately infected himself with gonorrhea as an experiment when he was writing a book on venereal and venereal diseases.

King George III was one of the patients treated by John Hunter
His large collection of specimens, notes and writings are preserved in the Hunter's Museum attached to the Royal College of Surgeons of Britain.
This collection includes his extensive notes, one of which describes a man who attended St. George's Hospital in 1766 with a solid tumor in the bottom of one of his thighs.
"It looked like a tumor in the bone at first sight, and it was growing very fast," the notes read. When examining the affected organ, we found that it consisted of a substance surrounding the lower part of the femur, and it looked like a tumor that had arisen from the bone itself.”
Hunter amputated the patient's thigh, temporarily leaving him in symmetry for four weeks.
“But then, he started to weaken and gradually fade away and he became short of breath.”
The patient died 7 weeks after the amputation, and his autopsy revealed the spread of bone-like tumors to his lungs, endocardium, and ribs.
More than 200 years later, Dr. Maceo discovered Hunter's samples.
"As soon as I looked at the samples, I knew that the patient was suffering from bone cancer," she said. John Hunter's description was very prudent and in keeping with what we know about the course of this disease."
She went on to say, "The large amounts of newly formed bone and the shape of the primary tumor are among the hallmarks of bone cancer."
Maceo consulted her colleagues at the Royal Marsden Hospital, who used modern screening methods to confirm the diagnosis.
"I think his prognosis was impressive and in fact the method of treatment he used was similar to what we do today," said the doctor, who specializes in this type of cancer.
But she said the exciting phase of this research has yet to begin, as doctors will be comparing more samples Hunter collected from his patients with contemporary tumors - both microscopically and genetically - to infer any differences between them.
"It's a study of the evolution of cancers in the last 200 years, and if we're being honest with ourselves, we have to say we don't know what we're going to get," Macieu told the BBC.
"But it would be interesting to see if we can correlate lifestyle risk factors with any differences we might see between historical and contemporary cancers."
In an article they published in the British Medical Bulletin, the Royal Marsden Hospital team apologized for their delay in analyzing samples from 1786 to the present day, and for violating the rules for delaying treatment of cancerous diseases, but they noted that their hospital had not been opened for a long time.

Source: British News Agency