Prior to treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, how were cancer patients treated?
This got me thinking. After hearing a rather gross story from the Middle Ages that dealt with a nun treating a cancerous tumor, how were cancer patients treated prior to the advent of chemotherapy and radiation?
And here’s an additional question: why does chemotherapy cause hair loss and nausea in patients?
Unless a tumor could be cut out, most cancers resulted in death; although there were probably plenty of off-the -wall treatments. In the early stages of Xray therapy (think 1900s)–it was considered to be effective if the skin burned! Surgery for growths goes as far back as the Egyptians & Greeks (they used various drugs & chemicals for anesthesia).
Many Chemo drugs work by targeting the cell cycle in rapidly dividing cells (which is simply what a tumor is–very rapidly dividing & growing cells); the hair follicle is one such rapidly normal dividing cell line (your hair grows, right?) so that’s why they get "killed" off & hair falls out. So too the cells lining the GI tract are affected & you have many of the GI side effects associated with chem. That and many many drugs cause nausea in general.
Unless a tumor could be cut out, most cancers resulted in death; although there were probably plenty of off-the -wall treatments. In the early stages of Xray therapy (think 1900s)–it was considered to be effective if the skin burned! Surgery for growths goes as far back as the Egyptians & Greeks (they used various drugs & chemicals for anesthesia).
Many Chemo drugs work by targeting the cell cycle in rapidly dividing cells (which is simply what a tumor is–very rapidly dividing & growing cells); the hair follicle is one such rapidly normal dividing cell line (your hair grows, right?) so that’s why they get "killed" off & hair falls out. So too the cells lining the GI tract are affected & you have many of the GI side effects associated with chem. That and many many drugs cause nausea in general.
References :
ER PA/med history buff
they were only given pain killers cancer was cut away by operation people did not last long
References :
Different chemotherapy drugs have different short term and long term side effects and certainly not all chemotherapy drugs cause every side effect. In general, chemotherapy damages cells that are dividing, so the parts of the body where normal cells divide frequently are likely to be affected by chemotherapy. The mouth, intestines, skin, hair, bone marrow (the spongy material that fills your bones and produces new blood cells) are commonly affected by chemotherapy. Hair is growing all the time. The skin is constantly renewing itself. So are the lining of the mouth and digestive system. To do this, the cells of all these body tissues must constantly divide to produce a steady supply of new cells. And when cells are dividing, chemotherapy drugs can attack them.
Although most anti-cancer drugs have side effects, not everyone will get these effects.
Nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy; stomach upset may trigger a strong urge to vomit, or forcefully eliminate what is in the stomach.
Stimulation of the vomiting center results in the coordination of responses from the diaphragm, salivary glands, cranial nerves, and gastrointestinal muscles to produce the interruption of respiration and forced expulsion of stomach contents known as retching and vomiting. The vomiting center is stimulated directly by afferent input from the vagal and splanchnic nerves, the pharynx, the cerebral cortex, cholinergic and histamine stimulation from the vestibular system, and efferent input from the chemoreceptor trigger zone (CTZ). The CTZ is in the area postrema, outside the blood-brain barrier, and is thus susceptible to stimulation by substances present in the blood or cerebral spinal fluid. The neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin stimulate the vomiting center indirectly via stimulation of the CTZ.
As far as the Middle ages go , things were barbaric. They did not know what the word cancer was they only knew that if someone had a lump that was growing out of their leg , it should be removed. There were no analgesics back then or pain killers, just home brewed alcohol given to disinfect the area and then the same in a cup to drink to numb the pain. How fortuante we are to be living in times where medicine has hit an all time high for cures. What I find so ironic is that people have been spending trillions of dollars over the ages but a simple cold , no idea !
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Yahoo