Shanghai Science & Technology News Q&A Moderator: Chief Reporter Wu Coix Ting

Cancer is not an old term, it is a title we have given only after the development of science. Cancer is an endogenous disease of the human body, with the possibility of cells dividing incorrectly from time to time. In ancient times, many people actually died of cancer, it's just that people back then didn't know the cause and didn't have the concept of cancer.

Today we have advanced science and technology, and medical check-ups are very common. The detection rate of benign and malignant tumors is now very high, and some cancers can be identified at an early stage. So people today are very lucky.

Cancer has been a constant companion throughout the history of human development, and scientists have discovered that a malignant cancer, osteosarcoma, occurred 1.8 million years ago in the foot bones of a close human relative dug out of the Watkrans Cave in South Africa. Scientists have also found remnants of prostate cancer in the remains of a 2,700-year-old Russian king from Scythia, where they found traces of dense tumors crawling in the old king's pelvis and lumbar vertebrae, as well as in the bones of his upper arms and legs.

In ancient times people generally did not live long. The mortality rate was high and the average life expectancy was short. Viral and bacterial infections, which seem to be common in modern times, were probably incurable in ancient times. And the high incidence of cancer is usually in the middle and late age era of human beings, many ancient people did not live to a certain age and died, there is no chance to get cancer.

In ancient Chinese medicine, there is a word that describes cancer, that is, "swelling", only that some swellings are not malignant tumors that can subside, while some swellings can be fatal. As a matter of fact, when we look at some ancient documents, some people who were alive and well suddenly died of illness after a few months, and the cause was still unknown, and most of these deaths were caused by malignant tumors. For example, Liu Bowen, a famous prime minister in the early Ming Dynasty, might have been suffering from liver or intestinal cancer, and felt that there was a stone forming in his abdomen, and he died quickly in a short period of time.

Ancients certainly got cancer, but ------>

Ancient people didn't always find out when they had cancer.

Due to the limitations of the means of observation, the ancients were not always able to recognize the essential characteristics of cancer. For example, they could only observe the larger solid tumors on the surface of the body, but could not detect the tumors hidden deep inside the body. It is also difficult to detect the characteristics of malignant tumors that can metastasize. For non-solid malignant tumors, such as leukemia, malignant lymphoma and other diseases, it is even impossible to know.

We are now detecting cancer more and more and earlier because of the availability of imaging equipment such as ultrasound, CT, MRI, and other tests, various methods of tissue biopsy, and microscopes to be able to look at the cells to confirm the diagnosis.

Most of the ancients did not live to the age of high cancer incidence.

Cancer is caused by mutations in the genetic material of cells. The mutation of a normal cell into a cancerous cell is an effect that develops over many years and the accumulation of many mutations.That's why the vast majority of tumors occur after the age of 40-50 years, with a progressive increase in incidence with age.

Ancient people had poorer hygiene and medical conditions, and the average life expectancy was only about 30 years old, which was too late to reach the age of high incidence of cancer, and analyzing from this perspective, it is quite possible that ancient people had less cancer than modern people.

Ancient people lived at a slower pace, with less stress and less environmental pollution.

It is the norm for modern people to stay up late, work overtime, work with fatigue, be nervous and stressed, which are all intrinsic reasons for the prevalence of cancer.

Environmental pollution of air, water and soil, special chemical industries, various electromagnetic radiations, smoking, drinking, barbecuing, frying and pickling processed foods, all of which may contain carcinogenic substances, and long-term exposure, also lead to increased incidence of cancer.

In comparison, the ancients were "happier" than we are in these areas, and probably had relatively fewer cancers.

reach a verdict

Ancient people could get cancer just as well. But since it is almost unlikely that accurate medical data were left behind in ancient times, it is impossible to have a definite answer to the question of whether ancient people had less cancer than modern people. But analyzing the theory, it should be recognized that the incidence of cancer in modern people is significantly higher than that of ancient people.

Welcome to Dr. Cheng's 100 High, focusing on the daily health issues around you.

"Cancer" has never been a specific disease, but a common name for a group of diseases called malignant tumors. In fact, there are more malignant tumors than just cancer. Cancer is only one type of malignant tumor, and only malignant tumors of epithelial tissue origin can be called cancer. For example, a malignant tumor of smooth muscle origin of mesenchymal tissue is not called smooth muscle carcinoma, but smooth muscle sarcoma. Because malignant tumors of epithelial origin are more common, people have been using "cancer" to refer to malignant tumors for a long time. For example, the late CCTV news anchor Mr. Luo Jing, he once suffered from a malignant tumor called lymphoma, not lymphoma, not malignant lymphoma. Because there is no benign lymphoma, which is itself a malignant tumor; lymphoma is a malignant tumor of lymphohematopoietic tissue origin, so it can't be called lymphoma. ......

What is the diagnosis of "cancer"?

There are many tests that can indicate malignancy, blood tumor markers, imaging tests (ultrasound, CT, MRI) and so on. However, all these tests are highly suggestive but cannot be used as the basis for a definitive diagnosis. In other words, if CT, MRI reports that the tumor is not clearly defined, and ultrasound reports that similar abnormal echoes are found in other organs, it can only indicate that the tumor has a very high probability of malignancy, but it cannot be diagnosed as a malignant tumor. Because individual special benign tumors may sometimes have similar infiltrative growth, or even grow to other places ......

At present, the only way to confirm the diagnosis of malignant tumors is histopathological diagnosis, which is often referred to as "biopsy". The tumor is cut off or punctured out of part of the biopsy, made into paraffin sections, and then observed through a microscope to confirm the diagnosis from the histological level. Only tumors diagnosed as malignant by histology are truly malignant. After the histologic diagnosis of malignancy, all other diagnoses that are benign or potentially benign, such as diagnostic imaging, can be disregarded!

Speaking of this must be more or less understand what is going on, in front of today's "high-tech" instruments, the final diagnosis of malignant tumors can only rely on pathology and histology diagnosis. Traditional Chinese medicine relies entirely on the human senses of observation, smell and examination, and is simply unable to achieve accurate diagnosis! In other words, at best, traditional Chinese medicine can only determine whether it is a tumor or not, but cannot accurately determine its benign or malignant nature. We should know that the current Chinese medicine is still influenced by Western medicine, ancient Chinese traditional medicine does not have a malignant tumor, only "swelling" or "tumor", it does not matter whether it is benign or malignant.

When did modern clinical pathology in Western medicine originate? The emergence of pathology in the modern sense of Western medicine was at least during the Qing Dynasty in China, and clinical pathology was even later. In other words, in ancient China, there was no histopathological diagnosis, how to talk about the diagnosis of malignant tumors? In fact, it is not that there was no "cancer" in ancient China, but there was no diagnosed "cancer", and many malignant tumors were treated as other diseases by ancient people. ......

Ancient cases of suspected "cancer".

According to historical records, Liu Ji (Liu Bowen), a famous minister during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, found that there were lumps and stones in his abdomen before he died, and he died shortly afterwards. ...... Many people in the later generations have put the blame on the head of the Ming Dynasty's great-grandfather, Zhu Yuanzhang, saying that Zhu Yuanzhang had sent someone to poison Liu Ji to death. In fact, the general surgery and pathology doctors must have a feeling that Liu Ji probably died of a malignant tumor of the digestive system.

In a short period of time the tumor grows rapidly, fills the abdominal cavity like a stone and is less mobile. In a relatively short time after the disease, the patient dies, and these symptoms are too similar to those of a malignant tumor. If the tumor is only benign, even if the tumor itself is relatively large, it does not seem to be so fast and life-threatening. I have seen uterine smooth muscle tumors of more than 20 or nearly 30 centimeters in my daily work, and although they are large, they are not life-threatening. Therefore, we can boldly speculate, Liu Ji is likely to die of malignant tumors of the digestive system, Zhu Yuanzhang really took the blame ......

Having said that the answer to the questioner's question is actually very clear, what is Liu Ji? He was a founding father of the Ming dynasty and a count! He was able to obtain medical treatment should be one of the best in the country at that time, but even so, the Ming dynasty doctors were not able to under a diagnosis of malignant tumors, and even the term "cancer" are not. To be clear, it is not that the ancients rarely get "cancer", but the ancients simply do not know that there is "cancer" such a thing, when other diseases are dealt with, medical books naturally do not leave relevant records.

Ancient people may be less likely to develop malignant tumors than modern people, after all, there are not as many harmful environmental factors. But many malignant tumors have nothing to do with the environment, it is their own genetic decision, does it mean that modern people have the gene for "cancer", but ancient people do not? Where do our genes come from? Aren't they from the ancient people whom we call "ancestors"? Therefore, the argument that ancient people rarely got cancer is not tenable at all, and is more often ignored. ......

Why did the ancients rarely get cancer?

I am answering this question based on my personal opinion, so that we can all join together in the trips and discussions to examine the reality of the existence of the problem.

In ancient times, our country is mainly based on agricultural production, basically is the day for the production conditions, that is, now the rural DuBo often say words, rely on the sky to eat, although the ancient economy is backward, but people's diet all green and non-toxic food, in that is the sunrise, sunset and return lifestyle, so that people have a normal life pattern. Since ancient times, birth, old age, sickness and death is a normal phenomenon of human beings, ancient people also have cancer, but there is no cancer in that era this term, such as liver cancer in the late stage of the patient called water drum. That is, the whole water in the belly. Ancient people are very few, in that the average life expectancy is shorter. These aspects are also reflected in the fact that the number of patients with cancer is very small. Into the modern society, the people's standard of living, the increase in fertility rate, with the vigorous development of industry, air pollution, agricultural fertilizer incremental use, at the same time, a variety of diseases, especially cancer patients big complexity of the rise, this is when we found this special phenomenon. Modern society and the ancient period, according to the population ratio calculation, now the cancer patients may not be much higher. Nature needs to be balanced, people will always die, the level of development of medical science is high, the development of disease is also rooted with the upward, human beings can not be cured, the disease of the threat to human life. Fear of nature, to protect our living environment, so that a long and healthy life is the pursuit of mankind.

Cancer is not a modern disease, and our people have a long history of fighting tumors. As early as 3,000 years ago, the name "tumor" was found in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin ruins. Regarding the description of cancer, some ancient writers have pointed out that the oldest case can be traced back to a case of stomach cancer recorded by Chun Yu Yi, the father of Tiga, in the era of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty. The earliest record of the word "cancer" is found in the Wei Ji Po Shu of the early twelfth century, which contains observations on breast cancer, stating that women over 40 years of age are susceptible to this disease, which can fester for three years and lead to death. As the ancient people did not know much about the pathology and metastasis of cancer, they only knew that cancer was like a rock, hard and bumpy, with poisonous roots deeply rooted in the body, and that the word 'Yan' was commonly used for 'rock' in ancient times.

Ancient people have much fewer records of cancer than modern people, and this is quite understandable. Ancient people ate and drank all natural, non-polluting. There was no industry in ancient times, and there was no air or water pollution. Ancient people have good living habits, nothing to play in the mountains, poetry, you see Su Dongpo relegated to many times, but also can write 'bamboo cane shoes light than the horse, who is afraid? A straw raincoat smoke and rain Ren Ping Sheng'' such a bold poem, this is what kind of temperament. Nowadays, people live under great pressure, overtime and late at night is almost the norm, tobacco and alcohol, no meat, these on the body immune system damage is huge.

In fact, the main reason is that the life expectancy of ancient people is too short, the average life expectancy of people in Qin and Han Dynasty was 22-25 years old, with the development of Chinese medicine, the average life expectancy of people in Ming and Qing Dynasties was only 33-35 years old, and in ancient times, the men who were more than 30 years old called themselves as 'old man'. As we all know, it takes 10-20 years for a tumor to develop, and it is a long process for a mutated cell to develop into a visible tumor tissue. Therefore, the high incidence of cancer occurs after the age of 50-60 years, and the vast majority of the ancient people could not live up to this age. At present, the average life expectancy of Chinese people is about 75 years old, and with the improvement of living standard, the average life expectancy is gradually rising, and it is at this age that tumors are most likely to form. The improvement of modern medical technology makes tumors easy to be found, all kinds of laboratory tests, Ct, magnetic resonance and other technologies make tumors have no way to hide, while in ancient times, it was impossible to know the condition of internal organs by looking and sniffing. In ancient times, people died in wars and were malnourished. Due to the backwardness of medical conditions, even a small boil or carbuncle could be fatal. Medical technology was supposed to be at its highest in ancient palaces, yet many young emperors died prematurely from infectious diseases such as measles and smallpox. These diseases are extremely simple for modern medicine and can be prevented by vaccination.

It can be seen that cancer has existed since ancient times, only that due to the limitations of medical technology, there is no way to know how it occurs and develops. This is also the reason why Western medicine is the mainstream in the diagnosis of diseases. Although Chinese medicine can play a certain role in the treatment of some diseases and the conditioning of the body, it cannot replace the mainstream position of Western medicine.

Did the ancients rarely get cancer? Why?

Not necessarily so.

1. Many cancers are actually diseases of the elderly. Take prostate cancer as an example, this kind of cancer, the incidence rate is almost zero under the age of 50, but after the age of 60, the incidence rate will rise significantly, and some research results show that the incidence rate of prostate cancer in elderly men over the age of 80 is around 80% (autopsy results). Therefore, if the average life expectancy of ancient people was short, some cancers terminated their lives before they got it.

2, there is a folk saying, "men are afraid to wear boots and women are afraid to wear hats", talking about male foot swelling, female face swelling, time is running out. Before the lack of medical knowledge, people only know this phenomenon, but can not say what the reason. To the modern medical point of view, the elderly, male lower limbs swollen, female face swelling, most of the malignant tumors in multiple metastases, lymph node swelling compression of the nearby blood vessels, hindering blood circulation. Therefore, from this proverb, it can be inferred that ancient malignant tumors are also rare.

3. There are many records of cancer in ancient medicine. For example, cancer is called "rock disease", "Huang Di Nei Jing", has recorded the tendon tumor, intestinal tumors, etc., Valley a book of swollen ulcers, gall tumors, malignant sores, tumors, rock, cancer, etc., some of which include tumors, and some of them actually refer to tumors; "Ren Zhai Zhi Zhi Zhi Fen Yuan Lian" cloud "cancer on the high and deep, rock cave-like", and pointed out that it "poisonous roots are deep", and will eventually cause coma; from these records, it indicates that there were many records of cancer in ancient medical science. The Records of Renzhai Zhi Zhi Jian Zhi Yuan Lun (《仁斋直指附遗方論》) said that "cancer is high, deep and rocky" and pointed out that it has "poisonous roots that are deep and hidden", which will cause coma in the end; these records show that there were a lot of cancers in the ancient times.

Cancer has existed since ancient times, and it is true that cancer has become more and more common since modern times, and it should be a fact that the ancients seldom had cancer. In fact, not only cancer, like now many common diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and so on, ancient people also rarely get. Why is this?

In fact, these diseases have a common characteristic, are mainly chronic diseases, the onset of are not acute, need a long time, to the middle-aged and older than the onset of the main, this is a very important revelation: 1, the average life expectancy of the ancients is short, more than forty years of age are not too many, and the incidence of cancer is mainly in the middle-aged and older, which is equivalent to that is to say that the ancients a lot of life is less than easy to get cancer at the age of the over, to put it bluntly, the "opportunity" to get cancer is much less than now, the longer we live, the greater the probability of getting cancer risk. To put it bluntly, the "chance" of getting cancer is much less than now, the longer you live, the greater the probability of getting cancer risk, age itself is one of the most important risk factors for the development of cancer. In fact, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease and other chronic diseases are almost the same, mainly common among the elderly, and ancient people seldom have the opportunity to live to the age of high incidence of these diseases. 2, like cancer, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease and these chronic diseases, in addition to the age of this morbidity-related high-risk factors, lifestyle and dietary habits and so on, is an important cause of morbidity or predisposing factors, it can be said that the modern lifestyle and dietary habits and so on is the cause of recent modernization and the development of the risk factors. It can be said that modern lifestyle and dietary habits are more important factors leading to the increasing incidence of cancer in modern times. Of course, there is also the modernized economic development of the industrial generation, poorer environment, unsafe food, and more carcinogens, which are all important reasons leading to the high incidence of cancer in modern times. And relatively speaking, the natural environment in ancient times was better (but the living environment was not good, threats and dangers were everywhere), and the life of ancient people was simple, both in terms of lifestyle and dietary habits, etc. were more austere (but also prone to malnutrition, not prone to cancer, but prone to other problems). As for other reasons, such as the low level of medicine in ancient times and the lack of relevant statistics, many people might have gotten cancer but could not be diagnosed and had no way of knowing, it was basically a muddle, but of course this aspect was not the main reason.

In ancient times, medical technology was backward, it was difficult to guarantee food and clothing, and the average life expectancy was only thirty to forty years old.

Nowadays, the average life expectancy is close to 80 years. But in ancient times, "life was seventy years old", that is to say, it was very rare to find people who could live to the age of 70.

The vast majority of cancers are age-related, with the incidence rising with age, such as lung cancer, ovarian cancer, liver cancer, stomach cancer, and so on. The reason for the impression that the ancients rarely got cancer is that they died before they lived to an age where they had a chance of getting cancer.

In another case, an ancient person died of cancer, but there was not enough advanced medical technology to diagnose the cause of death, and a "premature death" was the final word.

Of course nowadays nuclear pollution, environmental pollution, junk food, etc., also promote the development and progression of cancer, such as pediatric leukemia.

Now more and more people get cancer, of course, there are environmental factors, compared to the ancient mountains and green water, agricultural society, modern factories, science and technology will cause environmental pollution, ancient people ate food, with the fashionable word, that is "green food", natural, pollution-free, no pesticides, no residue. So ancient people have cancer? Or is it due to the problems of modern society, leading to a high incidence of cancer?

In fact, there are some factors to be taken into account when comparing people today with the ancients. For example, the rapid dissemination of information nowadays is beyond the reach of the ancients. Ancient people are not without cancer, but the lack of awareness of cancer, often only practicing doctors will know, recorded in the medical records.

Therefore, when people in ancient times had cancer, often only the people around them knew about it, and the dissemination of information was not as developed as it is now. There is also the fact that in ancient societies, Chinese medicine practitioners generally followed the basic theories of Chinese medicine. Cancer was not called cancer, it was called "terminal illness" or "terminally ill". Moreover, ancient people believed in "the dead are the most important", certainly not to do decomposition of the body ah, pathology ah these studies, the family will not agree. So how did ancient doctors conduct clinical trials? It is said that they used death row inmates.

Moreover, the life expectancy of the ancient people was relatively short, and it was already very good to live up to sixty, and a lot of them passed away in their thirties and forties. There was no chance to get cancer at all, and their lives were taken away by natural and man-made disasters. In fact, it takes a long time for cancer to form and spread, and the older you get, the easier it is for some cells in your body to mutate, and the more chances you have to get cancer. Modern people's life expectancy has been extended, and naturally there are all kinds of old age diseases and cancers that come along with it. Coupled with environmental pollution, unhealthy diet, disorganized living habits, work pressure, irregular work and rest and other factors, so in comparison, the ancient people's cancer is much less.

The authoritative interpretation of Pharmaceutical Affairs, unauthorized reproduction, plagiarism will be punished.

I'm Sasha, I'll answer.

It is true that cancer was relatively rare in the ancients, but by no means absent.

The reasons are as follows:

First, there is a lack of means to confirm the diagnosis of cancer.

Today the diagnosis of cancer is mainly based on a variety of internal scientific tests, ultrasound, CT and other advanced equipment.

In ancient times, there was no such thing, except that a tumor was already visibly present outside the body to confirm the diagnosis.

In fact, this type of cancer was still discovered very early in ancient China.

Tendon tumors, intestinal tumors, and xie tumors (which refer to tumors that have formed over a long period of time) were already described in the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine more than 2,000 years ago.

However, other cancers are unlikely to be conclusively proven and the patient is assumed to have died of unknown symptoms.

Second, ancient people had shorter life spans and were less likely to develop cancer.

It is well known that the elderly are at high risk of cancer.

However, in ancient times, the average human lifespan was short due to the absence of modern medicine and especially the lack of antibiotics.

In ancient times, it was considered very good to be able to live into your fifties, sixty was uncommon, and seventy was called ancient.

A lot of people die in their 30s and 40s.

For example, in Dream of the Red Chamber, Jia Baoyu's own brother Jia Zhu died in his twenties, Jia Baoyu's girlfriend Lin Daiyu died when she was less than twenty years old, and Jia Baoyu's mother, Madame Wang, was only in her forties when she died.

Think about it, the Jia family was the richest and most powerful aristocrat at that time, and the family had hired a doctor for a long time, not to mention the common people.

If you die at this age, it is unlikely that you have cancer.

Third, it is less likely that the ancients did have cancer

The cause of cancer cure is either heredity or external pollution.

Genetics aside, external contamination has a lot to do with the environment.

Sasha remembers that someone used to go to the mountains of Yunnan and visit hundreds of war veterans.

These veterans are all in their seventies and eighties, and because they spend many years in the mountainous areas with green hills and unpolluted water, and engage in physical labor all year round, they are all in good health, and almost none of them suffer from cancer.

On the contrary, Jiangsu, where Sasha is from, has many so-called cancer villages.

For example, a village in Yangji Township, Funing County, Yancheng City (reported by China Business News in 2008) was seriously polluted by a chemical plant, and nearly 100 villagers died of cancer (mainly esophageal and lung cancers) in the five years from 2001 to 2006. Even after the chemical plant moved away, many people in the village still died of cancer every year.

And there is no industry in ancient times, basically agriculture. And agriculture has no chemical fertilizers and pesticides, even during the war Hunan rice paddies inside the water can be directly drinkable.

Without pollution, the likelihood of having cancer is naturally greatly reduced.