From Latin 'cancer' (crab) — Hippocrates named tumors after crabs because surrounding blood vessels resembled legs.
A disease caused by uncontrolled division of abnormal cells in a part of the body; also the zodiac sign and constellation of the Crab.
From Latin 'cancer' (crab; also a creeping ulcer, a malignant tumor), from Greek 'karkinos' (crab; cancer), from PIE *karḱ- (hard). Hippocrates (c. 460–370 BCE) is credited with applying 'karkinos' to tumors because the swollen veins radiating from a tumor resembled the legs of a crab. The physician Galen later distinguished 'karkinos' (non-ulcerated tumors) from 'karkinōma' (ulcerated tumors). Latin 'cancer' is a direct
Hippocrates named tumors 'karkinos' (crab) because the distended blood vessels radiating from a breast tumor looked like the legs of a crab. The image stuck for 2,400 years. German 'Krebs' (cancer) is a direct translation — 'Krebs' also means 'crab.' Even the zodiac sign Cancer (the Crab) shares the same word, making