Cancer and its treatment in main ancient books of islamic Iranian traditional medicine (7th to 14th century AD)

Abstract

Islamic medicine is regarded as a comprehensive medical school with a long, glorious and worldwide reputation. Some of the physicians of this school are famous worldwide and have contributed valuable services to the scientific world. Given the dramatically increasing prevalence of cancer and the relative inefficacy of current medications, there is a great demand for the introduction of effective therapeutic approaches. To this end, integration of traditional medicine with modern medical treatments represents a promising option. In this essay, methods of diagnosis and treatment of cancer have been mentioned in the view of five famous physicians before the Mongolian attack who used Islamic medicine, namely Rhazes, Akhaveyni, Ahwazi, Avicenna and Jorjani. The time course discussed is between the eighth and fourteenth centuries.