History of cancer

Okay, so cancer is this thing that makes your body cells grow and divide really fast and in a weird way.

A long, long time ago, like thousands of years ago, people didn’t really know what cancer was or how to treat it. Some people thought it was caused by bad smells. Others thought it was caused by the position of the stars. It was very confusing.

But over time, people started to figure out more about cancer. They realized that if you cut off a part of the body that had cancer, it could stop the cancer from spreading. This is called surgery, and it’s still used today for some kinds of cancer.

Later, in the 1800s, doctors started to use chemicals to try and kill cancer cells. They would put poison into the body that would hopefully only kill the cancer cells and not the healthy cells. This is called chemotherapy, and it’s still used today for many kinds of cancer.

Then, in the 1900s, doctors figured out that radiation could kill cancer cells too. This is called radiation therapy, and it’s also still used today for some kinds of cancer.

Today, there are many different kinds of treatments for cancer, and scientists are still studying it to try and find new ways to treat it or even prevent it from happening in the first place. It’s a really complex and sometimes scary thing, but lots of very smart people are working on it every day.