CANCER –FROM THE HORIZONS OF UNANI MEDICINE

Abstract

Cancer is an abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and in some cases to metastasize. cancer is the Latin word for crab .The ancients used the word to mean malignancy because of the crab like tenacity. It is a mass of tissue formed as a result of abnormal, excessive, uncoordinated, autonomous and purposeless proliferation of cell. Hippocrates [460-377BC] coined the term karkinos for cancer of the breast.. Cancer cells in other words refuse to    stop multiplying and continue to increase in number. It is the failure to stop multiplying which is the hallmark of a cancer. This they do even at the cost of other normal cells of the body which are starved to death for lack of nutrition. In Unani literature the basic cause of disease is change in  akhlat with respect to their quality and quantity. When the black bile (sauda) deviates from its normal quantity and quality.