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April 13 - July 31, 2024
civilization did not cause cancer, but by extending human life spans—civilization unveiled it.
It was in the time of Hippocrates, around 400 BC, that a word for cancer first appeared in the medical literature: karkinos, from the Greek word for “crab.” The tumor, with its clutch of swollen blood vessels around it, reminded Hippocrates of a crab dug in the sand with its legs spread in a circle.
A disease needed to be transformed politically before it could be transformed scientifically.
Everyone—patients, doctors, HMOs, advocacy groups—wanted trials in principle. But no one wanted to be in trials, in practice.
