SURGICAL-TREATMENT OF BREAST-CANCER SINCE HIPPOCRATES OF COS

The pessimistic prognosis for cancerous diseases made by the founder o f occidental medical science, Hippocrates of Cos (ca. 460 BC - ca. 370 BC), resulted also in the fact that the surgical treatment of breast cancer was performed rather as a last resort. Not until the rise of sc ientific surgery in the 16th century did European surgeons begin to de velop different procedures in the surgical treatment of breast cancer. In 1774, in a treatise rewarded by the Academy, the French surgeon Be rnard Peyrilhe, who may be considered one of the founders of experimen tal cancer research, demanded radical operative surgery in cases of br east cancer. Peyrilhe first formulated the principles of that surgical concept which is connected with the name of the American surgeon Will iam Stewart Halsted (1852-1922), a concept which has long remained inf luential.