Aspects of childhood cancer during the Byzantine period

The main trends in the diagnosis and management of childhood cancer during the Byzantine period (330-1453 CE) are investigated. Therapeutic modalities reflected the influences from Ancient Greek and Greco-Roman medicine. Medi cal treatment included a great variety of regimens, and surgery was not unk nown. The attitudes toward cancer suggest that people of that time did not believe in a superstitious origin of the disease. Even though most of these remedies and many procedures are nowadays out of use, the physicians of th e Byzantine period preserved the scientific medical thought of antiquity, i mproved it, and set the basis of current achievements. Medical terms introd uced during the Byzantine period are still used. The texts have been studie d in their original languages, that is, Ancient and Byzantine Greek, and La tin.