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Updated: Mar 19, 2026

Endobronchial Ultrasound-guided Intratumoral Injection of Cisplatin for the Treatment of Isolated Mediastinal Recurrence of Lung Cancer
Published on: February 12, 2017
Popular palliative cancer treatments in 18th--mid 19th century
George Androutsos1, Michalis Koutsilieris, Athanase Protogerou
1University Institute of History of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University, Lyon, France.
Abstract:
In the 18th century cancer was an incurable disease and the only therapeutic approach was surgery which was accompanied with several life threatening complications. In the absence of effective cancer treatment, palliative approach was proposed by physicians. Compression, ligation, "cura famis" and treatment by cold were four popular treatments in the 18th century provoking an outbreak of therapeutic illusions in cancer patients and physicians, before being lost in oblivion.
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